
Class __E^:5Sl__ 

Book ____:!____ 



11 f</ 




LIBERTY BELL, I7TK. 
• rrt.i-liiim Liheily lliiMii-lK.ut, ;ill Itie Laad, uuln all the Iiihi^iitaDts thorcc 




"the little BEL L," 1^ 



"Mv LoTio, I can touch a bell ou my riglit hand, and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio; I cnn 
touch a loll again, and order the impri.^oumcnt <'f a citizen of New York ; and uo power oa earth, 
except that of lac l*ru.^ideiit, cuu release tlioiu. Can the Queen r f Knn'^^'l ^'^ so much?" 

Secretary Seward to Lord Lyons, ate page 13, 



AMERICAN BASTILE. 



A HISTORY 



OF THE ILLEGAL ARRESTS AND LMPRISONMENT OF 

AMERICAN CITIZENS DURING THE 

LATE CIVIL WAR. 



BY 



JOHN A. MARSHALL. 



" Bitter things I write, 
Because my soul is bitter for your salje, 
Freedom!" Gibsti. 



Tevecdo ^utg. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

THOMAS W. HARTLEY, 

Nos. 819 AND 821 Market Street. 
187 0. 



£'4-5'f 



.€ 



.t^u 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

JOHN A. MARSHALL, 

In the Clerk's OiSce of the District Court of the United States in and for 

the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 






THIS VOLUME 



3t^ptttinn\i §t&it^ttA 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 



THE AUTHOE. 



lUusti'iitijjits, 



1st. LIBEPvTY BELL, .See Frontispiece. 

This bell, the first in Philadelphia, was imported from England in 1752, for 
the State House, but, having met with an accident in the trial-ringing 
after it was landed, it lost the tones received in the fatherland, and 
had to be conformed to ours by a recasting. 

The ringing of this bell first announced to the citizens, who were anxiously 
awaiting the result of the deliberations of Congress, (which were at 
that time held with closed doors,) that the Declaration of Independ- 
ence had been decided upon ; and then it was that the bell " Proclaimed 
Liberty throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

It was subsequently cracked, and is now to be seen in Independence 
Hall, proper. 
2d. "THE LITTLE BELL." Frontispiece. 

To this picture we call a moment's attention. 

The first scene, or centre, represents the private office of Secretary 
Seward in the State Department. The hand of an unseen person, 
with the forefinger on the bell, is that of the Hon. Secretary, whose 
left naui contains an order for the arrest of a citizen, which is about 
being received for execution by the hand of an unknown Marshal. 

In the second, or upper left corner, is seen the arrest of the victim in his 
bed, by the Marshal, on the authority of this winged messenger. A 
guard is stationed in the chamber door to prevent the egress or in- 
gress of the family or friends. 

In the third, or the upper right corner, the same citizen is seen in the 
custody of two soldiers, who are taking him toward his place of im- 
prisonment. This practice, Mr. Seward, the American Inquisitor 
General, adopted from the Spanish Inquisition, which made all arrests 
by night, that no traces of the missing person might exist. 

The fourth, or lower right corner, presents the interior of a cell, with the 
emaciated form of the victim, sitting on his pallet, guarded by a sentinel. 

In the last, or lower left corner, is the interior view of another cell, in 
which "Liberty in shackles weeps." 

3d. SEAL OF MAGNA CHARTA, Page 46 

4th. INDEPENDENCE HALL, 49 

6th. FORT WARREN, .... Description of, see page 687, 71 

6th. OLD CAPITOL PRISON, 321 

7th. FORT LAFAYETTE, . . . Description of, see page 652, 509 
8th. FAC-SIMILE OF THE KEY OF THE BASTILE, PARIS, . . 710 

Description of, see page 17. 
iv 



TO THE EEABEE. 



rpHE importance of the subject required that some one 
J- should write a history of " The Prisoners of State " 
during the Administration of the late President Lincoln. 

This was due to the Muse of History — to " The Prisoners 
of State " — to Posterity — and to the Country, ^ 

By a resolution of a Convention of " The Prisoners of 
State," held in the city of i^ew York, the Author was se- 
lected the Historian of the "Association of State Prisoners." 

This work, therefore, comes before the public in an au- 
thentic form. 

It has been impartially prepared, and 

"Will a round, unvarnished tale deliver." 

"Nothing extenuate, 

Nor set down aught in malice." 

Everything appertaining to the history of our conntry — 
her institutions — the sovereignty of her peopled — her liber- 
ties — her progress, and her destiny — must necessarily inter- 
est the American citizen. 

The liberty of the citizen is the great prop of Free 
Government. 

The reader will at once see the importance of putting on 
record the facts detailed in this volume, while they are fresh 
in the minds of the people. 

As a matter of history, how interesting, not only to the 
reader of to-day, but, also, to the youth of the country, 
for generations to come I 



VI TOTHEREADEE. 

This work contains an authentic account of the Arrest, 
Imprisonment, and Terrible Sufferings of American Citizens 
incarcerated as Prisoners of State ; together with the Orders 
for Arrest, Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus, Prohibit- 
ing the Employment of Counsel, etc., etc. 

The horrors of prison-life in Ports Lafayette, "VYarren, 
McHenry, Delaware, Mifflin, Old Capitol Prison, Penitenti- 
aries, and Military Camps, and their condition, are truthfully 
delineated. 

The book contains Preface, Introduction, translated copy 
of the Magna Charta, with its Seal ; the Constitution of the 
United States, with the recent Amendments ; History and 
Incidents of the Old Capitol Prison ; together with narra- 
tives of about seventy citizens, from all of the Northern States, 
except I^ew Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, in- 
cluding in the number Foreign Ministers, United States 
Senators, ISIembers of Congress, Members of State Legisla- 
tures, Judges, Lawyers, Ministers, Doctors, Farmers, Editors, 
Merchants, Ladies, and indeed all the walks of life are repre- 
sented. 

It is, in addition, embellished with a number of Engrav- 
ings. The frontispiece is ornamented with " Liberty Bell,'' 
and " The Little Bell" while pictures of the State House, 
Philadelphia ; Fort Warren, Boston Harbor ; Fort Lafayette, 
ISTew York Harbor ; Old Capitol Prison, Washington ; and 
the " Key of the Bastile," Paris, illustrate the other portions 
of the work. 

J. A. M. 

Philadelphia, August, 1869. 



This book sold only by subscription. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, . . . 

Introduction, 

IMagna Charta, 

Constitution of the United States, with Amendments, 

Colonel Lambdin P. Milligan, Huntingdon, Indiana, 

Rev. K. J. Stewart, Spottswood, New Jersey, 

Mrs. Mary B. Morris, Chicago, Illinois, 

Hiram Wentworth, Minnesota, .... 

Hon. Francis D. Flanders, Malone, New York, 

Judge Joseph R. Flanders, Malone, New York, . 

Archibald McGregor, Canton, Ohio, 

Hon. L. W. Hall, Bucyrus, Ohio, .... 

Joseph Kugler, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 

Hon. Wm. H. Carlin, Quincy, Illinois, . 

Hon. Chas. Ingersoll, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 

Edward Ingersoll, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, . 

Hon. James "W. Wall, Burlington, New Jersey, . 

Hon. Robert Elliott, Freedom, Maine, . 

Rev. Robert Douglas, Washington County, Maryland, 

Captain H. L. Shields, Bennington, Vermont, 

Warren J. Reed, Whitelysburg, Delaware, 

Israel Blanchard, M. D., Carbondale, Illinois, 

Dennis Hickey, Chester County, Pennsylvania, . 

Rev. Judson D. Benedict, Aurora, New York, 

Isaac C. W. Powell, Esq., Easton, Maryland, . 

James Corban Naylor, Winterset, Iowa. 

Hon. Phineas C. Wright, New York City, New York, 

Hon. Richard H. Stanton, Maysville, Kentucky, . 



PAGE 
11 

25 
35 
49 
71 
92 
97 
107 
111 
111 
117 
125 
127 
129 
134 
134 
139 
153 
156 
165 
168 
174 
180 
183 
206 
213 
218 
236 



Yin 



CONTENTS. 



James H. Hall, Maysville, Kentucky, 

Washington B. Tottle, Maysville, Kentucky, 

Benjamin F. Thomas, Maysville, Kentucky, 

William Hunt, Maysville, Kentucky, . 

Isaac Xelson, Maysville, Kentucky, - 

George Forrester, Maysville, Kentucky, 

Wm. T. Costoe, Maysville, Kentucky, . 

John W. Smith, St. Louis, Missouri, 

General Wm. Brindle, Lecompton, Kansas, 

John T. Gilmer, M. D., Adams County, Illinois, 

John H. Cook, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 

Hon. Geo.Wm. Brown, Baltimore. Maryland, 

A. B. Hewitt, M. D., Chatham, Illinois, 

Wm. PI. Winder, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 

C. F. Rust, Seaford, Delaware, .... 

Hon. Andrew D. Duff, Benton, Illinois, 

Invasion of Columbia County, Pennsylvania, . 

Wm. Appleman, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, 

Rev. A. R. Rutan, Fairmount, Pennsylvania, 

P. S. Reeder, Chesterfield, Illinois, . . . , 

Old Capitol Prison, History and Incidents of, . 

Lieutenant McClune, York, Pennsylvania, 

J. W. Packard, North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 

Chas. Macgill, M. D., Hagerstown, Maryland, 

General Geo. W. Jones, Dubuque, Iowa, 

Samuel H. Bundy, M. D., Williamson County, Illinois, 

John Apple, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, . 

Hon. Dennis A. Mahony, Dubuque, Iowa, 

Cyrus F. Sargent, Yarmouth, Maine, 

Joseph K. Ev^vns, Winterset, Iowa, 

William Evans, Madison County, Iowa, 

David McCarty, Madison County, Iowa, 

John H. Porter, Winterset, Iowa, 

Joseph W. Gideon, Winterset, Iowa, 

V. M. Gideon, Winterset, Iowa, .... 

James Keith, IMadison County, Iowa, .... 

Hon. Richard B. Carmichael, Queen Anne County, Mary 

Jaisies M. Williams, Spring Garden, Illinois, 

Hon. David Sheean, Galena, Illinois, 



PAG a 

. 23G 

. 230 
. 236 

. 236 
. 236 

. 236 

. 236 

242 

. 245 

. 249 
. 251 

. 253 
. 266 

. 268 
. 290 

. 293 
. 303 

. 308 
. 312 

. 317 
. 321 

. 324 
. 858 

. 360 
. 375 

. 385 
. 400 

. 403 
. 417 

. 421 
422 

. 4?3 
. 423 

. 424 
. 424 

. 424 
and 426 

. 449 
. 451 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



Geo. W. Wilson, Upper Marlboro', Maryland, . 

J. Blake Walters, Esq., Clearfield, Pennsylvania, 

Major Jacob Wilhelm, Grahampton, Pennsylvania, 

Jacob Hublee, Grahampton, Pennsylvania, . 

Thos. W. Beriiy, Esq., Baltimore, Maryland, 

Kev. David R. McAnally, D. D., St. Louis, Missouri 

Ormond Barrett, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 

Thos. C. MacDowell, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, . 

J. Montgobiery Foster, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 

M. J. Jones, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, . 

Philip Hilbish, Snyder County, Pennsylvania, . 

Hon. Madison Y. Johnson, Galena, Illinois, . 

Mrs. Isabel Brinsmade, New York, . 

The Maniac, Baltimore, Maryland, .... 

George A. Hubbell, Bridgeport, Connecticut, . 

Walter S. Hawkes, Tamaroa, Illinois, . 

Rev. Henry M. Paynter, Booneville, Missouri, . 

D. C. Wattles, North Branch, Michigan, 

Colonel Saml. North, Otsego County, New York, 

Major Levi Cohn, Albany, New York, . 

Lieutenant Morven M. Jones, Utica, New York, 

H. W. Newland, Benton, Illinois, .... 

Major J. J. Noah, Minnesota, .... 

Hon. Edson B. Olds, Lancaster, Ohio, . 

John E. Robinson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, . 

Alex. Harris, Esq., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 

Hon. Wm. M. Gwin, California, .... 

Hon. Calhoun Benham, California, . . . 

RoBT. J. Brent, Esq., California, 

Prof. Kobt. W. Newman, Peekskill, New York, 

Hon. Buckner S. Morris, Chicago, Illinois, 

Aaron Morton, Maytown, Pennsylvania, 

Jacob G. Peck, Maytown, Pennsylvania, 

Benjamin Markley, Maytown, Pennsylvania, 

Henry Lynch, Marietta, Pennsylvania, 

Hon, Henry Clay Dean, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, . 

Frank Key Howard, Esq., Baltimore, Maryland, 

Conclusion, 

Appendix, 



PREFACE. 



Author. Walk Id ! 

Judge H. Good evening, sir. I am glad to find you, as 
usual, surrounded by home-comforts — books, manuscripts, 
and papers appear to be your evening companions. 

Author. I am bappy to welcome you. Judge H. Pray, 
be seated. 

Judge H. Thank you, sir. What books were you so 
attentively examining when I entered ? 

Author. I was comparing three important documents — 
the Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, and 
the Constitution of the United States. The Magna Charta 
secured Personal Liberty, the Declaration proclaimed it, and 
the Constitution guaranteed it ; and yet, notwithstanding 
the experience and progress of more than six hundred years, 
they have been totally disregarded of late in our own coun- 
try, which boasts so much of personal rights and personal 
liberty. 

Judge H. That is true, sir. The Constitution is the chart 
by which every Administration ought to be guided ; but I 
regret to say — both for the reputation and stability of our 
Government — it has, of late, been a '■'• dead letter." 

Author. Do you think. Judge, the people are aware to 
what extent their rights have been lately trampled upon, and 
their liberties disreg-arded ? 

Judge H. I have the utmost confidence in the judgment 



Xll P K E F A C E. 

and patriotism of the people. They are not blind, nor are 
they listless ; yet, I think, they sometimes act without con- 
sidering. They are carried away by their enthusiasm in 
the support of measures, the consequences of which they do 
not see until it is too late to redress the wrong committed. 
This, however, cannot exactly be said to be the fault of the 
people. They are deluded by leaders, without merit or claim, 
who have accidentally been wafted into position — mere ad- 
venturers, who have nothiug to lose, and who are as igno- 
rant of the science of government as they are careless of 
preserving what little reputation they possess — in a word, 
by men who have 

"Skulls that cannot teacli, and will not learn." 

The jpeople do not even yet know the crimes that have been com- 
mitted in the name of Liberty. 

Author. Liberty, in the better days of our Hepublic, was 
the birthright of the American citizen. "What guarantee 
has he that he will be protected in this fireside right in the 
future, if we may judge the future by the past ? When the 
Constitution is despoiled of the altar of Liberty, in what 
temple can Freedom worship ? 

Judge H. With us Liberty has no protective guarantees. 
Mr. Seward may again ring his " little bell," and secretly 
hurry the citizen from the family circle to the loathsome 
casemate by the strong arm of arbitrary power, and what 
redress has he ? What becomes of the old English maxim, 
" Every man's house is his castle ? " 

Author. Did you ever mark the contrast in the senti- 
ments uttered by William H. Seward, Secretary of State, 
and AVilliam Pitt, Prime Minister of England? 



PREFACE. Xlll 

111 conversation with Lord Lyons, Mr. Seward said, '•'•My 

lord, lean touch a bell on my rigid hand, and order the arrest 
of a citizen of Ohio ; lean touch a hell again, and order the im- 
prisonmeiit of a citizen of Neio York ; and no power on earth, 
except that of the President, can release them. Can the Queen 
of England do so much ? " 

The Earl of Chatham said : 

" The poorest man in his cottage may bid defiance to 

ALL THE POWER OF THE CROWN. It MAY BE FRAIL ; ITS ROOF 
MAY SHAKE ; THE WIND MAY BLOW THROUGH IT ; THE STORM 
MAY ENTER ; THE RAIN MAY ENTER ; BUT THE KiNG OP ENG- 
LAND CANNOT ENTER : ALL HIS POWER DARES NOT CROSS THE 
THRESHOLD OF THAT RUINED TENEMENT." 

Here we have presented the difference between the liberties 
of the American citizen, and the rights of the English subject. 
Judge H. Yes, it presents a melancholy picture. 

"He that takes 
Deep in his soft credulity the stamp 
Designed by loud declaimers on the part 
Of liberty, themselves the slaves of lust, 
Incurs derision for his easy faith 
And lack of knowledge, and with cause enough: 
For when was public virtue to be found 
Where private was not? Can he love the whole 
Who loves no part? He be a nation's friend 
Who is in truth the friend of no man there? 
Can he be strenuous in his country's cause 
Who slights the charities, for whose dear sake 
That country, if at all, must be beloved?" 

It is to be hoped that the men in power, who have abused 
the confidence of the people, will soon be displaced. 

Author. Your language in reference to "abusing the 



XIV PREFACE. 

confidence of the people," reminds nie very forcibly of that 
uttered by Cicero, in his celebrated speech against Catiline, 
in which he says : " How far, then, Catiline, wilt thou abuse 
our patience ? How long, too, will that frantic wickedness 
of thine bafiie our efforts? To what extent will thy un- 
bridled audacity insolently display itself?" 

Judge H. Yes, and the same language might have been 
appropriately used in our own country during the late Ad- 
ministration. 

Author. I think it would have been quite apropos, for 
there were then in our midst many Catilines. Then Liberty 
was the synonyme of Fort. Could but the walls of Fort La 
Fayette — of Fort Warren — of Fort McHenry speak, what 
untold wrongs of vindictive persecution would the American 
people hear from those dark, damp, loathsome casemates! 
But a day of retribution will come, must come. Crimes and 
criminals never go unpunished. The wail of the mother — ■ 
the grief of the wife — or the cry of the daughter may be 
suppressed for the time, by the gleaming bayonets of an 
obedient soldiery; but retributive justice will follow him who 
robs the citizen of his liberty, even unto the very precincts of 
the cold and silent grave ; conscience will smite him on earth, 
and he will exclaim : 

"The tliorns that I have reaped, are of the tree I planted. 
They have torn me, and I bleed! " 

Judge H. Some day the history of the political imprison- 
ments during the late Administration will be written, and 
what a sad chapter to be read by posterity ! It makes my 
lieart sick to think that in this land of so-called liberty 
there has been so much oppression. "We can no longer point 
to the Bastilcs of France — the Towers and castles of Eng- 



PREFACE. XV 

land, as "barbarous relics of a barbarous age." The Ame- 
rican Bastile is now identified with the institutions of our 
country. Here the word of the informer was the law — the 
sound of the '■'■little bell" the signal — and the telegraph the 
messenger. Citizens were arrested by thousands, and incar- 
cerated without warrant. Judges were torn from the bench, 
bruised and bleeding. Ministers of the Gospel, while per- 
forming the sacred and holy duties of their offices, were 
stricken down, dragged through the streets, and imprisoned. 
Women were incarcerated, and subjected to insult and out- 
rage. Doctors were ruthlessly taken from the bedside of the 
dyiiig patient, and immured for months without warrant, 
and lawyers arrested and consigned to the same cells with 
their clients, whose release they were endeavoring to effect. 
Post-offices were searched ; newspapers seized and suppressed, 
while the editors were handcuffed and secretly hurried to 
prison. The writ of Habeas Corpus was a blank, and all our 
inheritable rights, "poor, poor, dumb mouths." 

Author. Nor was that all. The citizen was not only de- 
nied the great bulwark of personal liberty — the writ of 
Habeas Corjms — but even the guns upon the ramparts of 
strongly garrisoned fortresses, placed there to defend the 
Citadel of Liberty against a foreign enemy without, were 
used to prevent the execution of the writ to effect the re- 
lease of the citizen incarcerated within, and derisively called 
the " Habeas Corpus." What solemn mockery ! 

Judge H. Yes, the civil law was powerless, while military 
law ruled supreme. The citizen was utterly helpless. His 
liberty and life were in the hands of a reckless military com- 
mission, or an obedient Secretary, who had neither conscience 
nor mercy. 



XVI PREFACE. 

AuTHOK. Ay, it makes one sad to tliink there was sucli 
an useless disregard of all personal rights. A Government 
so young should protect the liberties of the people, for disso- 
lution will soon follow tj^ranny in a free government. 

Judge II. How would you like to write a history of the 
j)olitical imprisonments during the Administration of the 
late Mr. Lincoln ? 

Author. My dear Judge, I should prefer to write a 
brighter jpage in the history of my country. 

Judge H. That is true. But do you not think it is a 
duty Ave owe to our country, as good citizens, to give the 
facts to the people, shoAv them that they have been misin- 
formed and deceived, and thus, if possible, prevent a repeti- 
tion of like encroachments upon their chartered rights? 

Author. Do you not think the prejudices of those who 
ought to listen, are so strong that they would turn a deaf 
ear to the truth ? 

Judge II. No. On the contrary, I believe a large portion 
of the Republican party was opposed to the illegal arrests 
of citizens, and regret that such a course of arbitrary power 
was exercised. 

Author. I should think so too ; for the name of "" Bas- 
TiLE," in free America, involuntarily carries us back to the 
French Revolution, where crimes untold were committed, 
as in our own country, in the name of liberty. 

Judge IL Can you give me a. short history of the Bastile 
in Paris? I know it was demolished, but I have forgotten 
the facts in connection with it. 

Author. I will endeavor to do so ; but you will excuse 
me. Judge, if you find me a little rusty. The Fortress of 
the Bastile, I think, was erected in the fourteenth century, 



PREFACE. XVll 

(in the reign of Charles V.,) about the time the city was 
surrounded by walls and ditches, to defend it from the incut- 
sions of the English. It was then in the fashionable quarter 
of the city. About the year 1594, Henri II. received a 
wound, in tilting at a tournament, from the Comte de Mont- 
gomery, and in consequence of the death of Henri from this 
wound, Catherine de Medicis deserted this quarter, and in 
later years the Fortress of the Bastile was used only as a 
state prison. Like most edifices of this nature, it became 
odious in the sight of the people, " and as the receptacle of 
individuals arrested by virtue of Lettres de Cachet^ was the 
scene of many memorable abuses of authority." It was con- 
sequently against this monument of arbitrary power that the 
people directed the attack in 1789. They captured it, and 
liberated the many unhappy and unfortunate victims therein 
confined. It was afterwards totally demolished by a decree 
of the National Assembly. On its site stands the Column 
July, an ornament of the city of Paris, and an index to the 
progress and civilization of the times. One part of this 
column is devoted to commemorate the names of those who 
fell in the taking of the Bastile, and the other to those who 
were killed on the spot in July, 1830. When I stood at the 
base of this column in 1859, I thought of the presentation 
of the key of the Bastile by La Fayette to Washington. 

The key was placed in the hands of La Fayette, who for- 
warded it, through Thomas Paine, an American in London, 
as a present to Washington, together with a drawing repre- 
senting the destruction of the prison. In the letter to Wash- 
ington, accompanying the gift, the Marquis says: 

" Give me leave, my dear general, to present you with a 
picture of the Bastile, just as it looked a few days after I 



XVm P E E F A C E. 

ordered its destruction, with the luain key of the fortress of 
despotism. It is a tribute wliieh I owe as a son to n\y 
adopted father, as an aide-de-camp to my general, as a mis- 
sionary of Uhorty to its patriarch." 

Mr. Thomas Paine forwarded from London the drawing 
and key, accompanied l)y a letter, in which he said : 

" I feel myself happy in heing the person through whom 
the Marquis has conveyed this early trophy of the spoils ot 
despotism, and first ripe fruits of American principles trans- 
planted into Europe, to his great master and patron 

" That the principles of America opened tlie Bastile is not 
to be doubted, and, therefore, the key comes to the right 
place." 

"Washington wrote to La Fayette : ^ 

" I received your allivtionate letter by one conveyance, and 
the token gained by liberty over despotism, by another ; for 
both which testimonials of your friendship and regard, I pray 
you to accept my sincerest thanks. In this great subject of 
triumph for the New World, and for humanity in general, it 
will never be forgotten how conspicuous a part you bore, and 
how much lustre you rcHected on a country in which you 
made the first displays of your character." 

It has been eloquently and truthfully said: 

"• The key was hung in Alount Vernon as a memento of 
the triumph of American principles of liberty in France, and 
an emblem of their all-pervading vigor in our own country. 
What a n\clancholy retrospect for the American citizen ! 
The Bastile is crumbled in France, but the principles of des- 
potism that reared it are transplanted into America, and im- 
press the character of the very fortress named after its illus- 
trious destroyer. The Bastile is here. If the spirits of 



PREFACE. XIX 

the mighty dead ev^er mingle with the destinies of the living, 
how must the groans of anguish wafted up to Heaven from 
that prison, fall on the mighty spirits of the immortal Wash- 
ington and Lafayette ? That key still hangs in the hallowed 
shades of Mount Vernon, an Emblem of Liberty." 

Judge H. Do you not think the arbitrary power exercised 
during the Administration of Mr. Lincoln, will have a dam- 
aging efi'ect upon the influence of free institutions abroad, 
and that we had better protect the liberty of the citizen at 
home, before we attempt to transplant it into other countries? 

Author. The encroachments upon the personal rights of 
American citizens, during the Administration of President 
Lincoln, would not inspire one with the idea that we had 
much of liberty to lose, or, at least, be in a condition to trans- 
plant it into other countries, or among other peoples. Far 
better would it be, to inscribe on the brow of the Goddess of 
Liberty, over the dome of the Capitol at Washington, the 
ancient inscription over the entrance into the Temple of 
Apollo, at Delphi — "Know Thyself," than attempt to 
preach liberty abroad, when we do not enjoy it at home. 
Let our citizens be protected by constitutional liberty at 
home, and then you may sow the seeds of freedom of speech — 
freedom of the press — and freedom of thought — throughout 
the world if you choose ; but so long as our own soil is so 
poor that liberty will not germinate and fructify in it — or, 
if it does take root, is so feeble as to be swept away by the first 
under-current, then the less we boast about American Liberty, 
under an American Constitution, the better for our reputa- 
tion and the cause for which our forefathers contended. 

Judge IL The people ought to know wherein they have 
been robbed of their liberties, and by whom. You know it 



XX PREFACE. 

was the fear of tlie Roman citizen that his liberty was iu 
danger that caused the assassination of Caesar. 

Author. That was the excuse of the conspirators. The 
mere presentation of a crown to Csesar, at the Lupercal, how- 
ever, did not justify the deed, for he had thrice refused it. 
The liberty of the Roman citizen was not in danger, nor had 
any as yet been deprived of it. But in our country the case 
was quite different, for our citizens were robbed of their 
liberties ; and I agree with you, the people ought to know 
why, and by what authority the}^ have been deprived of 
their constitutional rights. 

Judge H. What method would you adopt to let them 
know the extent of the wrongs they have endured ? 

Author. The most truthful, and, I should think, the most 
effectual method, would be to publish a history of the indi- 
vidual cases of some of those who have suffered. In addi- 
tion to this, I would publish a translated copy of the 3Iagna 
Charta, a document which should be dear to every American 
freeman ; and besides, it would be a great curiosity to the 
American reader, for I do not think it has been published 
more than three or four times in this country. JSTo one who 
could secure a copy of the Great Charter — the Keystone of 
English Liberty — would neglect the opportunity. I have 
seen the original manuscript in the British jSfuseum, in Lon- 
don. It is written in Latin, and is considered a great curi- 
osity. Accompanying it, of course, would be its offspring — 
the Constitution of the United States, with the recent amend- 
ments to it. No man, of whatever political creed, should be 
without a copy of the Constitution, because it is as necessary 
for him to know its teachings, to understand his civic rights 
on earth, as it is important for him to study the precepts of 



PREFACE. XXI 

the Bible to aid him in his preparation for heaven. Then I 
would illustrate the book with "Independence Bell," with its 
inscription ; Mr. Seward's " little bell," with the hand of 
an unseen person touching it; "Independence Hall," where 
the Declaration of Independence was adopted and proclaimed ; 
and the " Old Capitol " at Washington, now demolished, 
where Congress (after the destruction of the Capitol by the 
British, in 1814,) met, but more recently used for the incar- 
ceration of Prisoners of State, together with some of the 
Forts in which thousands of citizens, torn from their families, 
without warrant or charge, and secretly hurried away from 
their homes, were immured for months and years, in damp, 
dungeon casemates. While all these things would be inter- 
esting to the reader, some of them would reveal secrets in 
the history of the Government which would astonish him. 

Judge H. You astonish me, and have excited my desire 
to see such a book. I am entirely ignorant of many things 
of which you have talked to-night. Such a work would be 
very instructive, and more interesting than any hook that has 
ever been published in this country. It would be bought and 
read by every man and woman who can read the English 
language. What would you call it? 

Author. The "American Bastile." 

Judge H. Now I not only request, but urge you to pub- 
lish such a book. 

Author. But I bave already said I would prefer to write 
a brighter page in my country's history. 

Judge H. So would a judge rather not sentence a criminal 
to death. 

Author. I will undertake then, though reluctantly, to do 
what you suggest — write a history of the cases of State 



XXll PREFACE. 

Prisoners. Your advice to me lias always been good ; and 
while I undertake this work, it will be for the public good. 
It will be for the purpose of preventing, in future, a repetition 
of the errors and crimes committed in the past, and to aid 
in the preservation of those rights, liberties, and franchises 
transmitted to us by the fathers of the Eepublic, to be pro- 
tected, defended, and guarded by us, as a sacred trust. 

Judge H. I am heartily glad, my dear sir, that you Itave 
acceded to my suggestions, and hope the history you w^rite 
will find a place on the shelf of every public and private 
library in our common country. It will not exhibit the 
bright side, but it may be the means of guarding the people 
against a repetition of the offences and wrongs committed in 
the past, and forewarn them, in the language of the Father 
of his Country, to " resist with care the spirit of innovation 
upon the principles of our government, however specious the 
pretext." 

Author. I thank you, my dear Judge, for the many kind 
suggestions you have made to me to-night, and trust they 
are fully appreciated. Your kindness is proverbial ; your 
learning acknowledged ; and your patriotism undoubted. 
Your disinterested friendship and advice to me have been in- 
valuable, and I hope I may continue in the future to merit 
your confidence and regard. 

Judge H. It will always give me pleasure to promote 
your individual interests ; but my advice to you, to-night, has 
been more concerning 3'our duty, than interest. The genius 
and science of our Government are based upon personal rights, 
and personal liljcrty. The people under our form of govern- 
ment are sovereign. They should know whei-ein their civil 
rights have been violated, and their liberties abridged. All 



PREFACE. Xxiii 

I aak of you is to enlighten them on these vital subjects — 
subjects that are the very marrow of our institutions. The peo- 
ple should know that while they are advancing the interests 
of their Government by a hearty co-operation, the Gov- 
ernment at the same time is not depriving them of their 
personal rights ; for, in the language of the great English 
orator and statesman, Edmund Burke, " Let it be once under- 
stood that your government may be one thing, and the peo- 
ple's privileges another ; that these two things may exist 
without any mutual relation, the cement is gone — the cohe- 
sion is loosened — and everything hastens to decay and disso- 
lution." But I have been agreeably entertained by you until 
a late hour. We will talk over these matters soon asrain. 
and in the mean time, my dear friend, farewell. 

Author. You are alwaj-s a welcome visitor — good night. 

Januaey. 1868. 



INTRODUCTION. 



PERSO^NAL or civil liberty is that boon wliicli man values 
most among the inestimable gifts of God, his Creator. 
[n the proper enjoyment of it, he stands forth in the image 
of his Maker, self-reliant and strong. Take from him this 
inherent natural right — through the forms of government or 
law — by subjugation or force — by tyranny or prerogative — 
and he is a mere machine, worked by the hand of power. 

It 18 equally true that the prosperity and superiority of the 
State or Illation having the elements of personal or civil 
liberty or freedom incorporated in the formation of the so- 
ciety which constitutes it, is in proportion to the extent of 
the civil privileges, immunities, and franchises. When a 
State properly enjoys liberty, its progress is the more rapid 
and stable. When the liberties of the people are abused and 
degraded, the State retrogrades. 

The proper uses of liberty, in a free government where 
emulation receives encouragement and support, stimulate the 
citizen, and produce culture, refinement, art, science, inven- 
tion, learning, eloquence, oratory, statesmanship, and religion, 
in the highest degree. No other form of government ad- 
vances the virtues and interests of the people to such supe- 
riority and pre-eminence. It invites competition — it is the 
lever of progress — it is the friend of ambition. Hence, when 
the whole people — like the individual man — are inspired 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

with a pure, patriotic, and instinctive love of liberty, tlie 
State becomes great, illustrious, and mighty. 

The citizen of a free State has no superior, in point of 
liberty or in point of law. The humblest citizen is entitled 
to the same rights and privileges, and the same protection, to 
which the highest magistrate is entitled. The law in a free 
government is no respecter of persons, nor does it make any 
distinction, in so far as liberty is concerned. 

In a free government, the Constitution throws around the 
citizen certain safeguards or protections to his liberty. It 
gives him the right to trial by jury. It secures him against 
unreasonable searches and seizures. It protects him against 
arrest, except on oath made by a responsible person. If mali- 
ciously arrested or falsely imprisoned, he has his redress or 
action against the informant or magistrate for trespass or 
false imprisonment. '•'■Every restraint upon a man'^ liherty^'' 
says Kent, " zs, in the eye of the law, an imprisonment, wherever 
may he the place, or whatever may be the manner in which the 
restraint is effected.'' Even words may constitute an imprison- 
ment, if they impose a restraint upon a person, and he sub- 
mits. 

He, then, who, possessing the power, robs the citizen of his 
liberty, even for an hour — yea, for a moment -r- without the 
sanction of law, or deprives him of the right to all the im- 
munities of the law, commits a cnyne against the interests of 
the State, which time cannot expiate. By his example, the 
people are made reckless of their liberties and their allegiance 
to the State. 

Blackstone says : " Of so great importance to the public is 
the preservation of personal liberty, that, if once it were left 
in the power of any, the highest magistrate, to imprison 



INTRODUCTION. XXVU 

arbitrarily whoever lie or his officers thought proper, there 
would soon be an end of all other rights and immunities. 
To bereave a man of his life, or by violence to confiscate his 
estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and 
notorious an act of despotism as must at once convey the 
alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom ; hut con- 
finement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his 
sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less strik- 
ing, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary power ." 

The highest aim of the magistrate in a free government 
should be to protect and defend, and not destroy, the liberty 
of the citizen. Even when the State is in danger, it is the 
province of the Legislature, and not of the magistrate, to 
protect it against external or internal foes. 

In a free or elective system of government, as in the 
United States, where a written Constitution has been adopted, 
the different branches of government are so well marked out 
and defined, and the duties and offices of each are so inde- 
pendent and distinct, that under no possible circumstances 
can usurpations in any, or the encroachments of one upon the 
other, be excused. Any usurpation whatever, in either 
branch, leads to anarchy, demoralization, and finally disrup- 
tion. The blow may not be aimed at, but it strikes into the 
very heart of liberty. 

Hence the absolute necessity of keeping the liberties of the 
people pure and immaculate, and free from infringement, by 
the makers, the administrators, and the expounders of the 
laws. 

In order to protect and increase the power and prolong the 
independence of the State, the liberties of the people must be 
fostered, guarded, and secured. " It " (liberty), says Burke, 



XXVm INTEODUCTIOlf. 

" is not only a private blessing of the first order, but tLe 
vital spring or energy of the State itself, which has just so 
much life and vigor as there is liberty in it." 

To protect liberty, the streams of legislation, administra- 
tion, and justice must be kept clear, from the fountain-head 
even unto the mouth. Usurpations and encroachments upon 
the rights and liberties of the citizen are as deleterious to 
the tranquillity and welfare of the State as the unbridled, 
unrestrained, and licentious abuse of them by the citizen. 

These prefatory remarks are made merely to remind the 
general reader of his constitutional rights. Of late, the civic 
riarhts of the citizen have been abrids-ed. It remains to be 
seen whether he will maintain them. The permanence and 
stability of the government rest entirely with the citizen. 
It is for him to say how long free government will exist in 
our country. 

Although free government may be traced back to a period 
of about three thousand years, it is not my intention to 
allude to the experiments in establishing it beyond the adop- 
tion of Magna Charta, in which may be found the vital 
principles on which it is based. The political rights which 
we enjoy under our Constitution may be said to be derived 
directly from that document. 

Yet, it is proper to say here, that the principles of liberty 
enunciated and the privileges granted by the Magna Charta, 
many of which had been digested in a code of laws by Alfred, 
were not confined exclusively to the Anglo-Saxons ; for 
almost at the same era, upon the election of King Christo- 
pher II. of Denmark, he was obliged to sign a charter grant- 
ing nearly the same privileges and immunities as were con- 
tained in the Magna Charta, among which were that no man 



INTRODUCTION. XXIX 

should be imprisoned, or deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
without public trial and conviction according to law ; and 
that no law should be made or altered without the consent 
of the Parliament, composed of the best men of the kingdom, 
to be held annually at "Wyborg. 

And it may be said, that in Northern Europe, as well as 
in England, at the time of the granting of the Great Charter, 
the German tribes generally, and the Danes, were inspired 
by the same spirit of liberty which was enkindled in the 
hearts of the Anglo-Saxons, their descendants. 

From the time of the granting of the municipal privileges 
and personal rights, as contained in Magna Charta, signed 
by King John on the 15th of June, 1215, but which was not 
really established until " after the contests of near a whole 
century," for during that time, " it is computed," says Hume, 
" that about thirty confirmations of the charter were at dif- 
ferent times required of several kings, and granted by them 
in full Parliament," the people of England have been 
jealous of their personal liberties and watchful of their civic 
rights. 

Since that period, the genius of the English people has 
been strongly and invariably in favor of liberty, while royal 
prerogative, until the accession of William and Mary, inclined 
as violently towards arbitrary power. 

The Magna Charta laid the foundation for a Constitution, 
which has engrafted in it all the attributes and securities 
of personal liberty, and stands a monument of enlightened 
statesmanship, worthy the pride and admiration of the English 
people ; while the Great Charter itself denotes an epoch be- 
tween despotism and liberty — semi-barbarism and civiliza- 
tion — rudeness and refinement. 



XXX INTRODUCTIOISr. 

The struggles to maintain the chartered rights of the peo- 
ple against the encroachments and usurpations of kingly 
prerogative, have been many, great, and even revolutionary. 
It has only been by an unconquerable will, and severe con- 
tests, that they have again and again been reasserted and 
re-established, enlarged and secured. 

Encroachments upon the rights and liberties of the people 
by Charles I., who caused the arbitrary imprisonment of his 
subjects, gave birth to the enactment of the Petition of Right, 
and also brought the head of that unhappy monarch to the 
block. 

To enforce the provisions contained in the Magna Charta 
and Petition of Right, for securing the subject in his personal 
rights and personal liberty, against arbitrary imprisonments 
by command of the King or the Privy Council, the Habeas 
Corpus Act was passed, in the 31st Charles II. It may be 
called the bulwark of English liberty. 

For nearly i&ve centuries, the contests between sovereign 
and people, the one for royal prerogative, the other for the 
rights of personal liberty, were many and violent. 

If the King would threaten with the Star Chamber, the 
people would point to the Magna Charta. If the King w^ould 
commit by the High Commission Court, the people would 
unfold the Petition of Right. If the King would imprison 
by the Privy Council, the people would release through the 
Habeas Corpus. 

In 1688, these struggles culminated, and ended in the adop- 
tion of the Declaration of Rights and the Act of Settlement, 
in the dethronement of James II. and the establishment 
of William and Mary, by a Civil Revolution, in which " not 



INTRODUCTION. XXXI 

a single new riglit was given to the people or a single flower 
of the crown was touched." 

Since then, wise and sagacious legislation may have added 
strength to the perpetuity of the Crown; but at the same 
time, it has maintained and enlarged the rights and liberties 
of the people. It has firmly established a triune govern- 
ment — a monarchy, an aristocracy, and a democracy — in 
which, happily, democracy is the controlling element and 
monarchy a mere formality, while the aristocracy leans to- 
wards the democracy for protection. 

The acts of the Sovereign are dependent on a ministry re- 
sponsible to the Parliament, which has grown so much in 
power, especially the Commons, that it may be said the safe- 
guards of personal liberty, under the English Constitution, 
repose in the breasts of the English people. 

After the expulsion of the kings, the Romans, being care- 
ful of their liberties, erected and dedicated a temple to the 
Goddess of Liberty, and it was then esteemed an honor to 
call oneself a Roman citizen — Civis Romanus. 

In our own country, there was a time when the proudest 
appellation a man could bear was that of American citizen. 
" I am an American citizen," implied liberty and safety — 
protection and justice. Then, the national shield was, indeed, 
a shield with arms — a shield which defended the citizen 
against every act of tyranny and usurpation — a shield which 
guarded him on land and sea, at home and abroad. Then, 
personal liberty was a citizen's birthright. Then, free speech 
was unshackled. Then, Mr. Webster could exclaim : " It " 
(free speech) " is a homebred right — a fireside privilege. It 
has ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in 
tbe nation. It is not to be drowned in controversy. It is as 



XXXll INTRODUCTION. 

undoubted as the right of hreathing the air and walking on 
the earth. It is a right to be maintained in peace and in 
war. It is a right which cannot be invaded without destroy- 
ing constitutional liberty. Hence, this right should be guarded 
and protected by the freemen of this country with a jealous 
care, unless they are prepared for chains and anarchy." 

"What are the protections of the law now ? 

When the arteries which convey the life-blood from the 
heart of the constitution to all parts of its body once become 
paralyzed, the most skilful treatment can never r^estore it to 
its original vigor and healthful condition. A partial recovery 
may be efi'ected, but the disease remains. 

Oppressive and illegal acts by one Administration may be 
adopted as established precedents for similar encroachments 
by succeeding ones ; and who can gainsay the right ? Surely^ 
not the peo])le^ when they not only encourage^ hut are accessories 
in the wrong. Therefore, without a proper and conscientious 
regard for the majesty of the law, and the observance of per- 
sonal rights, there is no security for permanence in free gov- 
ernment. 

From the organization of the Government, until the ad- 
ministration of the late Mr, Lincoln, we know of no case in 
which an American citizen was arrested without warrant, 
imprisoned without charge preferred, and released, after 
months and years of incarceration, without trial ; although 
he who will take the trouble to turn over the leaves of 
American history will discover that, in many cases, there was 
not only imaginary, but i^eal " disloyalty " among citizens, 
dangerous to the common interests of the Government, 
during former Administrations. 

Educated in the principles of republicanism, intelligent 



INTEODUCTION. XXXlll 

beyond comparison, and lieretofore governed by conservative 
magistrates, whose wisdom, experience, and characters com- 
manded respect and confidence — a people who had always 
supported the Government with alacrity, unseliish devotion, 
and fidelity, was unprepared to be obliged to submit, with- 
out redress, except by physical resistance, to an arbitrary and 
tyrannical prerogative, unrestrained by law, reason, or justice. 

The Administration of jMr. Lincoln having been ushered 
into existence under the banner of universal freedom, it was 
to be expected, from the enlightened condition of the age, 
and the conservative and patriotic disposition of the people 
in the " loyal " States, that the Government would be admin- 
istered in accordance with the promised reforms. In this, 
however, the people were disappointed. Legislative enact- 
ments were unrestrained by constitutional provisions. The 
President assumed quasi plenary power, to make and enforce 
laws without the interference, assistance, or aid of the legis- 
lative or judicial branches of Government ; and, in a word, 
drew around his ofiicial person — as he would his mantle 
around his individual person — all the powers of government, 
Municipal, State, and JSTational, which he enforced through 
his ohseqidons Secretaries. Consolidation of interests, and 
centralization of power, were complete. The Government 
was the President — the President was the Government. 

But we forbear to criticise. We present facts. Let them 
speak. Let the people answer. No words we could use would 
bring relief to the harrowed feeling of, or redress the wrongs 
perpetrated ii])on, thousands of unoffending citizens, by their 
unwarranted incarceration in American Bastilos during the 
Administration of the late President Lincohi. We contem- 
plate the cruelties, oppressions, persecutions, and imprison- 
3 



XXXIV IXTEODUCTIO]!?^. 

ments, committed during that long night of political despot- 
ism, with alarm. We shudder for the future of the country, 
when we take a retrospect of the late past. 

If a truthful presentation of the facts, as contained in this 
volume, will in anywise prevent in the future a repetition 
of the wronsfs and crimes committed against the rights and 
liberties of the people, in the name of liberty^ then our highest 
ambition has been satisfied. To prevent flagitious wrongs 
from beino; committed ao;ainst the constitutional rischts of 
individuals is the duty of every good citizen in a free State. 
Liberty is too valuable a privilege, and, as we have endeav- 
ored to demonstrate, has been too costly an inheritance, to be 
bartered away for the gratification of personal or political 
animosity. 

^L\v the time never again arrive in the history of this 
country, when it may be said to Americans, as was said by 
Camille Desmoulins to the Parisians during the French 
Revolution: "Ye worship the Goddess of Liberty, not in 
principle, but in stone, and never was a more stupid or costly 
idolatry. Liberty, heaven-descended, is neither a nymph of 
the opera, nor a bonnet rouge^ nor yet a dirty shirt and ragged 
clothes. Liberty is happiness, reason, equality — the decla- 
ration of rights — in a word, the Constitution. If you would 
have me worship it, open your prisons ; set free the two 
hundred thousand ye have incarcerated as suspects. 1 find 
no such crime in the Constitution or the law." 

That has always been in the past, and ever will be in the 

mrurc, the sincere prayer of 

The Author. 



MAGNA CHAKTA. 



JOHN", BY THE GRACE OF GoD, KING OP ENGLAND, LORD OF IRE- 
LAND, DUKE OF Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of An- 

JOU ; to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, EARLS, BARONS, JUSTI- 
CIARIES, FORESTERS, SHERIFFS, GOVERNORS, OFFICERS, AND TO ALL 
HIS BAILIFFS AND LIEGEMEN, GREETING : 

Know ye, that in presence of GOD, and for the health of our 
soul and the soul of our ancestors and heirs, and to the honor of 
God and to the exaltation of His Holy Church, and for the amend- 
ment of our kingdom ; by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen, 
archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and cardinal 
of the Holy lloman Church ; Henry, archbishoj) of Dublin ; Wil- 
liam of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glas- 
tonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of 
Coventry, and Benedict of Rochester, bishops ; Master Pandulph, 
our lord the Pope's subdeacon and servant ; Brother Aymeric, 
master of the Temple in England; and the noblemen William 
Marescall, earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William 
earl of Warren, William earl of Arundel, Alan de Galloway, con- 
stable of Scotland, Warin Fitzgerald, Peter Fitzherbert, Hubert 
de Burgh, seneschal of Poictou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz- 
herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip de Albiney, Robert 
de Roppelaye, John Marescall, John Fitzhugh, and others our 
liegemen; we have granted to GOD, and by this our present 
charter confirmed, for us and our heirs forever : 

1. That the English church shall be free and enjoy her whole 
liberties inviolate. And that we will have them so to be observed, 
appears from this that of our mere good will we granted, and by 
our chai^ter confirmed, the freedom of elections which was reck- 
oned most necessary for the English Church, and obtained the 

XXXV 



XXXvi MAGNA C H A K T A. 

confirmation thereof from our lord tlic Pope Innocent the Third, 
before the discord which has arisen between us and our bai-oiis ; - 
which charter we will ourselves observe, and will that it bo 
observed in good faith by our heirs forever. We have also for 
us and our heirs forever granted to all the freemen of our king- 
dom, all the i^nderwritten liberties to have and to hold to them 
and their heirs I'rom us and our heirs. 

2. If any of our earls or barons, or others holding lands of us 
in ca2)ite by military service shall die, and when he dies his heir 
shall be of full age and owe a relief, the heir shall have his inlierit- 
ance by the ancient relief; the heir or heirs of an earl for a whole 
earl's barony, by one hundred pounds; of a baron for a whole 
barony, by one hundred ])Ounds (marks); of a knight for a whole 
knight's fee, by one hundred shillings at most; and he who owes 
a less relief shall pay less according to the ancient custom of his 
fee. 

3. But if the heir shall be under age, and shall be in ward, 
when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without relief 
or fine. 

4. The warden of the heir under age shall take only reason- 
able issues, customs, and services; and that without destruction 
or waste of men or things. And if we shall commit the guai'- 
dianship of these lands to the sheriff or any other who is answer- 
able to us for their revenues, and he shall make destruction or 
waste on the ward lands, he shall make satisfaction ; and the 
lands shall be intrusted to two lawful and discreet men of that 
fee, who shall be answerable to us. Or, if we shall give or sell 
the wardship of lands to any one, and he shall make destruction 
or waste, he shall lose his wardship, and the lands shall be in- 
trusted to two discreet men of that fee, who shall be answerable 
to us as aforesaid. 

5. The warden, for as long as he shall hold the land, shall, from 
the revenues thereof, maintain the liouses, parks, warrens, ponds, 
mills, and other things thereto pertaining; and he shall restore 
to the heir when he comes of age his whole land stocked with 
ploughs and carriages according as the line of wainage shall 
require, and the revenue of the estate will reasonably allow. 

6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement of their rank, 



MAGNA C H A R T A. XXXVU 

yet in Fuch wise, that before the marriage is contracted, the blood 
relations of the heir shall be acquainted with it. 

7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith 
and without difficulty have her marriage and her inheritance; 
nor shall she give anything for her dower, marriage, or her in- 
heritance which she and her husband may have held on the day 
of his decease; and she may remain in the house of her husband 
forty days after his death, within which term her dower shall be 
assigned. 

8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself while she 
shall desire to live without a husband; but she shall give security 
not to marry without the king's assent, if she holds of him; or 
without the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds 
of another. 

9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for 
any debt, so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient for 
the payment of the debt. Nor shall the sureties of the debtor 
be distrained, so long as the principal debtor is sufficient for the 
payment of the debt. And if the principal debtor fail in the 
payment of the debt, not having wherewithal to discharge it, 
then shall the sureties be answerable for the debt. And, if they 
will, they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor until they 
shall be satisfied for the debt they have paid for him; unless the 
principal debtor shall show^ himself acquitted thereof against the 
Baid sureties. 

10. If any one shall have borrowed anything from the Jews, 
more or less, and shall die before that debt be paid, the debt shall 
pay no interest so long as the heir shall be under age, of whom- 
soever he may hold; and if that debt shall fall into our hands, 
we will take nothing but the chattel named in the bond. 

11. And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall 
have her dower and shall pay nothing of that debt; and if chil- 
dren of the deceased shall remain, under age, necessaries shall 
be provided for them according to the tenement which belonged 
to the deceased ; and out of the residue the debt shall be paid, 
saving the rights of lords (from whom the lands are held). In 
like manner let it be done with debts due to others than Jews. 

12. No seutagQ nor aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, ex- 



XXXVlll MAGNA CHAETA. 

cepting for the ransom of our person, to make our eldest son a 
knight, and once to marry our eldest daughter; and for these 
none hut a reasonable aid shall be demanded. So, likewise, let it 
be concerning the aid of the city of London. 

13. And the city of London shall have all its ancient liberties 
and free customs, as well by land as by water. Furthermore, we 
will and grant that all other cities, burghs, towns, and ports, have 
all their liberties and free customs. 

14. And for the holding of the common council of the kingdom, 
to assess aids other than in the three aforesaid cases, and for the 
assessing of scutages, we will cause the archbishops, bishops, 
abbots, earls, and greater barons to be summoned individually 
by our letters; moreover, w^e will cause all others in general who 
hold of us in capite to be summoned by our sherift's and bailiffs 
on a certain da}^, to wit : forty days at least (before the meeting), 
and to a certain place; and in all letters of summons, we will 
declare the cause of the summons. And the summons being thus 
made, the business shall proceed on the day appointed, according 
to the advice of those who shall be present, although all that 
Bhall be summoned may not come. 

15. We will not, for the future, give leave to any one to take 
an aid from his own free tenants, unless to redeem his own body, 
to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest 
daughter; and for these none but a reasonable aid shall be paid. 

16. No man shall be distrained to do more service for a knight's 
fee or other free tenement, than what is justly due therefrom. 

17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall bo 
holden in some certain place. 

18. Trials upon the writs of yiovel disseisin, mort d'ancestre, and 
darrein presentment, shall be taken only in their proper counties, 
and after this manner : We, or, if we shall be out of the realm, 
our chief justiciary, will send through every county, four times 
in the year, two justiciaries, who, with four knights of the county, 
elected by the county, shall hold the aforesaid assizes in the 
county, on the county day, and at the county place. 

19. And if the aforesaid assizes cannot be held on the county 
day, let as many of the knights and freeholders, who have been 
present at the county court, remain behind, as shall be sufficient 



MAGNA C H A R T A. XXXIX 

to conduct the trials, accordiug as the business shall be, more or 
less. 

20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a slight offence, but in 
proportion to the degree of the offence; and for a great offence 
he shall be amerced according to its magnitude, saving to him 
his contenement; likewise, a merchant shall be amerced, saving 
to him his merchandise; and a villain in the same way, saving 
his waiuage if he falls under our mercy; and none of the afore- 
said amerciaments shall be assessed, but by the oath of honest 
men of the neighborhood. 

21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but b}' their i)eer8 
and according to the degree of their offence. 

22. No clerk shall be amer(!ed for his lay tenement but in the 
manner of the others aforesaid, and not according to the quan- 
tity of his ecclesiastical benefice. 

23. Neither town nor man shall be distrained to build bridges over 
rivers, save those who anciently and rightfully are bound to do it. 

24. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other our bailiifs shall 
hold pleas of our crown. 

25. All counties, hundreds, trethings, and wapentakes shall stand 
at their old rents without increase, except in our demesne manors. 

26. If any one, holding of us a lay fee, dies, and the sheriff or 
our bailiff' shall show our letters patent of summons concerning 
a debt due to us from the deceased, it shall be lawful for the 
sheriff or our bailiff" to attach and register the chattels of tlie 
deceased found upon his lay fee, to the amount of that debt, by 
the view of lawful men, so that nothing be removed until our 
whole debt be paid : and the rest shall be paid to the executors 
to fulfil the will of the deceased; and if there be nothing due 
from the deceased to us, the chattels shall remain to the deceased, 
saving to his wif6 and children their reasonable shares. 

27. If a freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be dis- 
tributed by the hands of his nearest relations and friends, by 
view of the church, saving to every one the debts which the 
deceased owed. 

28. No constable or other our bailiff shall take the corn or 
other goods of any man unless he instantly pay money for it, or 
obtain a respite of payment by the free will of the seller. 



xl MAGNACHAETA. 

29. No constable (of a castle) shall distrain any knight to give 
money for castle guai'd. if he be willing to do guard in his own 
person, or by another able man, if he himself, for reasonable 
cause, cannot perform it. And if we shall have led or sent him 
to the army, he shall be excused from castle guard according to 
the time he shall be in the army by our order. 

30. No sheritf nor bailiff of ours, nor any other person, shall 
take the horses or carts of any freeman, for carriage, without 
the free consent of the said freeman. 

31. Neither we nor our bailifts will take another man's timber 
for our castles or other uses, unless by the consent of the owner 
of the timber. 

32. We will not retain the lands of those who have been con- 
victed of felony, but for one year and a day, and then the}' shall 
be delivered to the lord of the fee. 

33. All wears shall, for the future, be wholly removed from the 
Thames and Medway, and throughout all England except on the 
seacoast. 

34. The writ which is called pnvcipc shall not for the future be 
granted to any one of any tenement whereby a freeman may 
lose his court. 

35. Throughout our whole kingdom there shall be one mea- 
sure of wine; and one measure of ale; and one measure of corn; 
namely, the quarter of London ; and one width of dyed cloths, 
and russets, and halberjects, namel}', two ells within the lists. 
And it shall be with weights as Avith measures. 

36. From henceforth nothing shall be given or taken for the 
writ oi' mqnest of life or limb; but it shall be given without 
charge, and not denied. 

37. If any man hold of us by fee-farm, socage, or bui'gage, and 
hold land of another by military service, we shall not have the 
wardshi]) of the heir or of the land which belongs to another 
man's iee on account of the afoi-esaid fee-farm, socage, or bur- 
gage ; nor shall we have the wardship of the fee-farm, socage, 
or burgage, unless the fee-farm owe military service. We shall 
not have tbe wardship of any man's heir, or of the land be holds 
of another on account of any petty serjeantr}- he holds of us by 
the service of giving us daggers, arrows, or the like. 

38. No bailitf shall henceforth put any man to his law upon 



MAGNACHARTA. xll 

his own single accusation without credible witnesses produced 
for that purpose. 

39. No FREEMAN SHALL BE TAKEN, OR IMPRISONED, OR DISPOS- 
SESSED, OR OUTLAWED. OR BANISHED, OR IN ANY WAY DESTROYED ; 
NOR WILL WE PASS UPON HIM, NOR COMMIT HIM, BUT BY THE LAW- 
FUL JUDGMENT OF HIS PEERS, OR BY THE LAW OF THE LAND. 

40. To NO MAN WILL WE SELL, TO NONE WILL WE DELAY, TO 
NONE AVILL WE DENY RIGHT OR JUSTICE. 

41. All merchants sliall have safety and security in coming 
into England and departing out of England, and in tarrying and 
travelling through England, as well by land as by water, to buy 
and sell M'ithout any evil tolls, according to the ancient and just 
customs ; except in time of war, when they shall be of any nation 
at war with us. And if an}^ such be found in our land at the 
beginning of a war, they shall be appreliended without injury of 
their bodies or their goods, until it shall be known to us or our 
chief justiciary how the merchants of our country are treated 
who are found in the country at war with us. And if ours be 
safe there, the others shall be safe in our land. 

42. Henceforth it shall be lawful to any person to go out of our 
kingdom and to return safely and securely, by land or by water, 
saving his allegiance to us, unless for some short space in time 
of war, for the common good of the kingdom ; except prisoners 
and outlaws by the law" of the land, people of a country at war 
with us, and merchants who shall be treated as aforesaid. 

43. If any man hold of any escheat, as of the honor of "VVal- 
Jingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or any other escheats 
which are in our hand and are baronies, and shall die, his heir 
shall not give any other relief, nor do any other service to us, 
than he would to the baron if the barony were in a baron's 
hand ; and we will hold it in the same way in which the baron 
held it. 

44. Men who dwell without the forest shall not hereafter come 
before our justiciaries of the forest on a common summons, unless 
they are parties to a plea or sureties for an}^ who have been 
apprehended for something concerning the forest. 

45. "We will not mal?e justiciaries, sheriffs, or bailiffs except of 
such as know the law of the land, and are disposed duly to ob- 
serve it. 



xlii MAGNA C H A E T A. 

46. All barons who have founded abbeys which they hold by- 
charter of the kings of England, or by ancient tenure, shall have 
the custody thereof when they fall vacant, as they ought to have. 

47. All forests which have been made in our time shall be im- 
mediately disforested; and it shall be so done with the embank- 
ments w4iich have been erected as obstructions to the rivers in 
our reign. 

48. All evil customs of forests and w-arrens, foresters and war- 
I'eners, sheriffs and their officers, embankments and their keepers, 
shall forthwith be inquired into in every county by twelve sworn 
knights of the same county, who must be elected by the good 
men of the county; and within forty daj^s after the holding of 
the inquisition they shall, by the said knights, be utterly ai)ol- 
ished so as never to be restored ; provided that we be first noti- 
fied thereof, or if we be not in England, our chief justiciary. 

49. We will forthwith restore all hostages and charters which 
have been delivered to us by the English in security of peace and 
faithful service. 

50. We will remove from their bailiwicks the kinsmen of Gerard 
de Athyes, so that henceforth they shall have no bailiwick in Eng- 
land ; Engelard of Cygony ; Andrew, Peter, and G-yone de Chan- 
cell; GJ-yone de Cygony; Geoffrey de Martin and his brothers; 
Philip Mark and his brothers, and Geoffrey his brother, and all 
their retinue. 

51. And immediately after the conclusion of peace we will re- 
move from the kingdom all foreign knights, crossbowmen, and 
mercenary soldiers who have come with horses and arms to the 
injury of the kingdom. 

52. If any man hath been by us deprived or dispossessed, witli- 
out the lawful judgment of his peers, of lands, castles, liberties, 
or rights, we will forthwith make restitution ; and if any dis- 
pute arise on this head, then the matter shall be settk^d by the 
judgment of five and twenty barons hereinafter mentioned for 
the preservation of the peace. Concerning all those things of 
which any man hath been deprived or dispossessed, without the 
legal judgment of his peers, by King Henry our fatlier, or King 
Richard our brother, which we hold in our OAvn hand or others 
hold under our warrant, we shall have respite until the common 
term of the Crusaders ; except those concerning which a plea has 



MAGNA CHAKTA. xliil 

been moved, or an inquisition made by our direction, before our 
taking the cross; but so soon as we shall return from our expe- 
dition, or if by chance we should not go upon our expedition, 
we will forthwith do therein full justice. 

53. We shall have like respite, and upon the like conditions, 
in doing justice by disforesting the forests which Henry our 
father or Eichard our brother afforested, and tlie same concerning 
the wardship of lands belonging to another man's fee, of which 
we have hitherto had wardship on account of some fee held by 
the tenant from us by military service; and concerning abbeys 
founded in a fee which is not ours, and in which the lord hath 
claimed a right; and when we shall have returned, or if we 
should not go upon our expedition, we shall forthwith do full 
justice to complainants in these matters. 

54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned on the appeal of a 
woman for the death of any other than her husband. 

55. All fines that have been made unjustly and contrary to the 
law of the land, and all amerciaments imposed unjustl}^, contrary 
to the law of the land, shall be wholly remitted ; or order shall 
therein be taken by the five and twenty barons hereinafter men- 
tioned for the security of the peace, or by the verdict of the 
greater part of them, together with the aforesaid Stephen, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and such others as 
he may think fit to bring with him ; but if he cannot be present, 
the business shall nevertheless proceed without him ; yet so, that 
if any one or moi-e of the aforesaid five and twenty barons have 
a like plea, they shall be removed from that particular trial, and 
others elected and sworn for that trial only by the residue of the 
five and twenty shall be substituted in their room. 

56. If we have deprived or dispossessed an}^ Welshmen of their 
lands, or liberties, or other things, wnthout a legal verdict of their 
peers, restitution shall forthwith be made; and if any dispute 
shall arise upon this head, then let it be determined in the 
Marches by the judgment of their peers; for tenements of Eng- 
land, according to the law of England; for tenements of Wales, 
according to the law of Wales ; and for tenements of the Marches, 
according to the law of the Marches. The Welsh shall do the 
same to us and to our subjects. 

57. Also, concerning those things of which any Welshman hath 
been deprived or dispossessed without the lawful judgment of 



Xliv MAGNA CHART A. 

his peers, by King Henry our father, or King Eichard our bro- 
ther, and which we hold in our hand or others bold under our 
warrant, we shall have respite until the common term of the 
Crusaders, except for those concerning which a plea hath been 
moved, or an inquisition made by our command before taking 
the cross. But as soon as we return upon our expedition, or if 
by chance we should not go upon our expedition, we shall imme- 
diately do full justice therein, according to the laws of Wales 
and of the parts aforesaid. 

58. We will forthwith release the son of Llewellyn, and all 
the charters and hostages of Wales which were delivered to us 
for security of the peace. 

59. We will do to Alexander, King of Scotland, concerning 
the restoration of his sisters and hostages, and concerning his 
liberties, and concerning his rights, according to the form in 
which we do to our other barons of England, unless it ought 
otherwise to be according to the charters which we have from 
William, his father, the late King of Scots; and this shall be by 
the judgment of his peers in our court. 

60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties which we, for our 
part, have granted to be holden in our kingdom by our people, 
let all within the kingdom, as well clergy as laity, observe toward 
their vassals. 

61. But forasmuch as we have granted all these things afore- 
said to GOD, both for the amendment of our kingdom and for the 
better settling of the discord which has sprung up between us 
and our barons ; and forasmuch as we desire that these things 
should remain in perfect and complete stability forever ; therefore 
we do make and grant them the security underwritten, to wit : 
that the barons may elect twentj^-five barons of the kingdom, 
whom the}^ please, who shall, with their whole power, observe, 
keep, and cause to be observed, the liberties which we have 
granted and confirmed to them by this our charter: that is to 
say, if we or our justiciary, or our bailiffs, or an}^ of our officers, 
shall have injured any one in anything, or shall have transgressed 
any article of peace or security, and the injury shall be shown 
to four of the aforesaid five and twenty barons, the four barons 
shall come to us, or to our justiciary if we shall be out of the 
kincrdom, and making known to us the wrong committed, shall 



MAGNA CHART A. xlv 

petition us to cause it to be redressed without delay. And if we, 
or our justiciary if we be not in the kingdom, do not redress the 
wrong within the terra of forty days, to be. reckoned ft-om the 
time when we were notified thereof, or when our justiciary was 
.notified, if wo were not within the kingdom, the aforesaid four 
barons shall lay the cause before the residue of the five and 
twenty barons; and they, the five and twenty barons, with the 
eommunity o'f the whole land, shall harass and disti'ess us in 
whatever ways they shall fee able, by the capture of our castles, 
lands, and possessions, and by any other means *hey can, until 
the injury have been redressed according to their judgment : 
saving harmless our own person and the persons of our queen 
and children : and when the wrong hath been redressed, they 
shall behave to us as they have done before. And whoever of 
our land shall please, may swear that he will obey the com- 
mands of the aforesaid five and twenty barons in accomplishing 
all these aforesaid things, and that, together with them, he will 
harass us according to his power. And we do publicly and freely 
grant, to every man who chooses, leave to take this oath, nor 
will we ever forbid any man to take it. But all men of our land, 
who, of themselves and of their own choice, shall be unwilling to 
swear to the five and twenty barons to distress and harass us, 
together with them, we will compel by our command to swear 
as is aforesaid. And if any of the five and twenty barons shall 
die, or leave the country, or in any other way be hindered from 
the execution of the things aforesaid, then the rest of the afore- 
said five and twenty barons shall, at their pleasure, choose an- 
other in his stead, who shall be sworn in the same manner as 
the rest. Now, in all the things which ai"e intrusted to be exe- 
cuted by these five and twenty barons, if it happen that the five 
and twenty shall be present, and shall disagree concerning, any 
matter; or if some of them, having been summoned, be unwil- 
ling or unable to attend, that which the greater part of those 
who may be present shall determine or decree, shall be held as 
firm and valid as if all the twenty-five had been agreed therein; 
and the aforesaid five and twenty men shall swear that they will 
faithfully observe all the aforesaid things, and to the utmost of 
their power cause them to be observed. And neither by ourself 
nor through another will m'c obtain anything from any man, 
through which any of these grants and liberties may be revoked 
or lessened. And if any such thing shall have been obtained, it 



xlvi 



MAGNA CHART A. 



shall be null and void; and we will never use it, through ourself 
or through another. 

G2. And to all men we have fully remitted and pardoned all 
the ill wills, resentments, and rancors, which have arisen between 
us and our subjects, lay and clerical, from the commencement of 
our disagreement. Moreover, we have fully remitted, and so far 
as in us lies, have fully pardoned to all the clergy and laity, all 
transgressions, committed by occasion of the same disagreement, 
from the Easter of the sixteenth year of our reign to the con- 
clusion of the peace. And further, we have caused testimonial 
letters j)atent to be made for them concerning this security and 
the aforesaid grants fi'om the lord Stephen, archbishop of Can- 
terbury, the lord Henry, archbishop of Dublin, and from Master 
Pandulph. 

63. Wherefore we do will and firmly do command that the 
Church of England be free; and that all men in our kingdom 
have and hold all the afoi-esaid liberties, and rights, and grants, 
well and in peace, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, as afore- 
said, to them and 
their heirs, from us 
and our heirs for- 
ever. It is also 
sworn, as well on 
our part as on that 
of the barons, that 
all the things afore- 
said shall be ob- 



served in good faith 
and without evil in- 
tention. Witnessed 
by the above and 
many others. Given 
by our own hand, 
in the mead called 
Runnymede, be- 
tween Windsor and 
Staines, this fif- 
teenth day of June, 
in the seventeenth 
year of our reign. 




SEAL OF MAGNA CHARTA. 



COVENANT OF SECURITY. 



THIS is the covenant made between our lord John, king of 
England, on the one part, and Eobert Fitzwalter, elected 
marshal of GOD and of the Holy Church in England, and Eich- 
ard earl of Clare, Geoffrey earl of Essex and Gloucester, Koger 
Bigod earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, Saher earl of Winchester, 
Eobert earl of Oxford, Henry earl of Hereford, and the barons 
underwritten : that is to say, William Marshall the younger, 
Eustace de Vescy, William de Mowbray, John Fitz Eobert, 
Eobert de Mont-Begon, William de Lauvalay, and other earls 
and barons and freemen of the whole kingdom, on the other 
part: namely, That they, the earls and barons, and others before 
written, shall hold the custody of the city of London in bail 
from our lord the king; saving that they shall clearly render all 
the debts and. revenues within the same to our lord the king, 
until the term of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mar}', 
in the seventeenth year of his reign. 

And the lord of Canterbury shall hold, in like manner of bail, 
from our lord the king, the custody of the tower of London, to 
the aforesaid term: saving to the city of London its liberties 
and free customs, and taking his oath, in the keeping of the said 
tower, that our lord the king shall, in the meanwhile, not place 
a guard, or other forces, in the aforesaid city, nor in the tower 
of London, 

And that, also, within the aforesaid term, the oaths to the 
twenty-five barons be tendered throughout all England, as it is 
tendered in the charter granted concerning the liberties and 
security of the kingdom, or to the attorneys of the twenty-five 
barons, as it is contained in the letters granted concerning the 
election of twelve knights for abolishing evil customs of the 
forests, and others. And moreover, within the said term, all the 
other demands which the earls, barons, and other freemen do 
ask of our lord the king, which he himself has declared to be 
granted to thcni, or which by the twenty-five barons, or by the 

xlvii 



xlviii COVENANT OF SECURITY. 

greater part of them, shall be judged proper to be granted, are 
to be given according to the tenor of the said charter. And if 
these things shall be done, or if our lord the king, on his part, 
shall agree to do them within tl^e term limited, then the city 
and tower of London shall, at tiie same term, be deiivered up to 
our lord the king; saving always to the aforesaid city it^s liber- 
ties and free customs, as it is before written. And if these things, 
shall not be done, and if our lord the king shall not agree to do 
them within the period aforesaid, the barons shall hold the afore- 
said city, and the lord archbishop the tower of London, until 
the aforesaid deed shall be completed. And in the meanwhile, 
all of both parts shall recover the castles, lands, and towns 
which have been taken in the beginning of the war that has 
arisen between our lord the king and the barons. 




INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 



CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



We the People of the United States, in order to form a 

MORE PERFECT UnION, ESTABLISH JuSTICE, INSURE DOMESTIC 

Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote 
THE general Welfare, and secure the Blessings op Lib- 
erty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the United States oe 
America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1. 
All legislative Powers hei-ein granted shall be vested in a Con- 
gress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

Section 2. 

'The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members 
chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, 
and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications re- 
quisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State 
liegislature. 

^No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have at- 
tained to the Age of twenty-five Years, and been seven Years n 
Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected,, 
he an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

•'Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among 
the several States which may be included within this Union., 
according to their respective numbers, wliich shal! be dotei-mine^ 
4 iiVix 



1 CONSTITUTIONOF 

by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including tlioso 
bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not 
taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumera- 
tion shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of 
the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent 
Term of ten Years, in such Manner as the}' shall by Law direct. 
The Number of Kepresentatives shall not exceed one for every 
thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Repre- 
sentative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State 
of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts 
eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connec- 
ticut fivC; New-York six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, 
Delaware one, Marj^land six, Virginia ten. North Carolina five, 
South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

* When vacancies happen in the Representation from any state, 
the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to 
fill such Vacancies. 

*The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and 
other Officers ; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. 

Section 3. 

■The Senate of the LTnited States shall be composed of two 
Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, 
for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. 

^Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of 
the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into 
three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall 
be vacated at the Exmration of the second Yeai-, of the second 
Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class 
at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one-third may be 
chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resigna- 
tion, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any 
State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appoint- 
ments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall 
then fill such Vacancies. 

»No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to 
the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant 
of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

*The Vice President of the United States shall be President 



THE UNITED STATES. 11 

of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally 
divided. 

'The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a Presi- 
dent pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when 
he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States. 

"The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. 
When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirma- 
tion. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief 
Justice shall preside. And no Person shall be convicted without 
the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present, 

* Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further 
than to removal from Office, and Disqualification to hold and 
enjoy any Office of honour. Trust or Profit under the United 
States : but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and 
subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, accord- 
ing to Law. 

Section 4. 

*The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Sena- 
tors and Kepresentatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the 
Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law 
make or alter such Regulations, except as to the places of chusing 
Senators. 

''The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and 
such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless 
they shall by Law appoint a diff'erent Day. 

* Section 5. 

'Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and 
Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall 
constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may 
adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the 
Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such 
Penalties as each House may provide. 

*Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, 
punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Con- 
currence of two thirds, expel a Member. 

'Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from 
time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in 
their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the 



lii CONSTITUTION OF 

Members of either House on sxny question shall, at the Desire of 
one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal. 

^Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without 
the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor 
to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall 
be sitting. 

Section 6. 

^The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensa- 
tion for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out 
of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, ex- 
cept Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from 
Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective 
Houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for 
any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be ques- 
tioned in any other Place. 

^ISTo Senator or Representative shall, duiing the Time for which 
he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Au- 
thority of the United States, which shall have been created, or 
the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such 
time; and no Person holding any Office nnder the United States, 
shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in 
office. 

Section 7. 

'All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of 
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with 
Amendments as on other Bills. 

^Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representa- 
tives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be pi'esented 
to the President of the United States ; If he approve he shall 
sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that 
House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the 
Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider 
it. If after such Reconsideration two thii-ds of that House shall 
agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objec- 
tions, to the other House, by which it shall li'kewise be recon- 
sidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall 
become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses 
shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Per- 
sons votinjr for and afrainst the Bill shall be entered on the Jour- 



THE UNITED STATES. 1111 

nal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned 
by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it 
shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a law, in like 
Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Ad- 
journment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a 
Law. 

'Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence 
of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessaiy 
(except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the 
President of the United States; and before the Same shall take 
Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, 
shall be repassed by tM'O thirds of the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in 
the Case of a Bill. 

Section 8. 

The Congress shall have power 

'To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay 
the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Wel- 
fare of the United States ; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises 
shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 

*To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; 

'To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the 
several States, and with the Indian Tribes; 

*To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform 
Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United 
States ; 

'To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign 
Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; 

*To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securi- 
ties and current Coin of the United States; 

^To establish Post Offices and post Roads; 

*To promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by se- 
curing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive 
Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; 

'To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; 

*"To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the 
high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; 

"To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and 
make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; 



liv CONSTITUTION OF 

"'■'To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money 
to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years ; 

"To provide and maintain a Navy; 

"To make Eules for the Government and Eegulation of the 
land and naval Forces; 

'*To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws 
of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; 

'«To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Mili- 
tia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed 
in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States re- 
spectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority 
of training the Militia according to the Discipline prescribed by 
Congress ; 

"To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, 
over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by 
Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, 
become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to 
exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent 
of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for 
the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock- Yards, and other 
needful Buildings; — And 

'®To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other 
Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 
United States, or in Sluj Department or Officer thereof. 

Section 9. 

'The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the 
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight, but a Tax or Duty may be imposed on such 
Importation, not exceeding ten doHars for each Person. 

'The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be sus- 
pended, unless when in Cases of Eebellion or Invasion the public 
Safety may require it. 

'No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. 

*No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in 
Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed 
to be taken. 



THE UNITED STATES. Iv 

*No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any- 
State. 

'No Preference shall be giveji by any Regulation of Commerce 
or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor 
shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, 
clear, or pay Duties in another. 

'No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Conse- 
quence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular State- 
ment and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public 
Money shall be published from time to time. 

«No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: 
And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, 
shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any pre- 
sent, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from 
any King, Prince, or foreign State. 

Section 10. 

'No State shall enter into any Treat}^, Alliance, or Confedera- 
tion ; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money ; emit 
P>ills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Ten 
der in Pa3'ment of Debts ; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post 
facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or 
grant any Title of Nobility. 

^No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, excejit Avhat may be 
absolutely necessary for executing its inspection Laws: and the 
net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on 
Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the 
United States ; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision 
and Control of the Congress. 

'No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any 
Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of 
Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, 
or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually 
invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of Delay. 

ARTICLE II. 
Section 1. 
*The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the 



Ivi CONSTITUTION OF 

Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, 
ehosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows : — 

-Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature 
thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole 
Number of Senators and Eepresentativcs to which the State may 
be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, 
or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United 
States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

'The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Elec- 
tors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which 
Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 

^No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the 
United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, 
shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any 
Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the 
Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Eesident 
within the United States. 

*In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of 
his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and 
Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice 
President, and the Congress may by Law pi'ovide for the Case 
of Removal, Death, Resignation, or Inability, both of the Presi- 
dent and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act 
as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the 
Disability be removed, or a President shall bo elected. ' 

«The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, 
a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished 
durino- the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he 
shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from 
the United States, or any of them. 

T Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take 
the following Oath or Affirmation : — 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will fitithfully execute 
"the Office of President of the United States, and will to the 
"best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitu- 
'•• tion of the United States. 

Section 2. 

'The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army 
and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several 



THE UNITED STATES. Ivil 

States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; 
he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer 
in each of the executive Dejiartments, upon any Subject relating 
to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power 
to grant Eeprieves and Pardons for Otfences against the United 
States, except in Cases of Impeachment. 

'He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent 
of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Sen- 
ators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with 
the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassa- 
dors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme 
Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appoint- 
ments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be 
established by Law : but Congress may by Law vest the Ap- 
pointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the 
President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Depart- 
ments. 

'The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that 
may happen during the Eecess of the Senate, by granting Com- 
missions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. 

Section 3. 

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information 
of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration 
such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he 
may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either 
of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with 
Eespect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to 
such Time as he shall think pi'oper; he shall receive Ambassadors 
and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be 
taitlifull}^ executed, and shall Commission all the officers of the 
United States. 

Section 4. 

The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment 
for, and Conviction of. Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes 
and Misdemeanors. 



Iviii CONSTITUTION OF 

AETICLE III. 
Section 1. 
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in 
one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress 
may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both 
of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during 
good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Ser- 
vices, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during 
their Continuance in Ofl&ce. 

Section 2. 

^The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and 
Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United 
States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their 
Authority; — to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public 
Ministers, and Consuls; — to all Cases of admiralty and mari- 
time Jurisdiction ; — to Controversies to which the United States 
shall be a Party; — to Controversies between two or more 
States; — between a State and Citizens of another State; — be- 
tween Citizens of different States; — between Citizens of the 
same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and 
between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Cit- 
izens or Subjects. 

*ln all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers 
and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be a Party, the 
supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other 
Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate 
Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, 
and under such Eegulations as the Congress shall make. 

*The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, 
shall be by Jury ; and such Trial shall be held in the State where 
the said Crimes shall have been committed ; but when not com- 
mitted within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or 
Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. 

Section 3. 

'Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levy- 
ing War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving 
them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Trea- 



THE UNITED STATES. lix 

son unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt 
Act, or on Confession in open Coui't. 

^The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of 
Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of 
Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person 
attainted. 

AETICLE IV. 
Section 1. 
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public 
Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. 
And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in 
which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and 
the Effect thereof. 

Section 2. 

^The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges 
and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. 

*A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other 
Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, 
shall on Demand of the executive Authoritj' of the State from 
which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having 
Jurisdiction of the Crime. 

'No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the 
Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any 
Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or 
Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom 
such Service or Labour may be due. 

Section 3. 

'New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; 
but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdic- 
tion of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junc- 
tion of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Con- 
sent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of 
the Congress. 

"The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all 
needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other 
Property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this 
Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of 
the United States, or of an}'- particular State. 



Ix CONSTITUTION OF 

Section 4. 
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union 
a Eepublican Form of Grovernment, and shall protect each of 
them against Invasion ; and on Application of the Legislature, 
or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) 
against domestic Violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem 
it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, 
on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several 
States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, 
in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part 
of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three 
fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths 
thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Eatification may be pro- 
posed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which 
may be made prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and 
eight shall in anj' Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the 
Ninth Section of the first Article ; and that no State, without its 
Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. 

AETICLE VL 

'All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before 
the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

^This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which 
shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, 
shall be the supreme Law of the Land ; and the Judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or 
Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. 

'The Senators and Eepresentatives before mentioned, and the 
Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and 
judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several 
States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to suytport this 
Constitution ; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a 
Qualification to any Office or public Trust i;nder the United 
States. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



1^ 



AETICLE Yir. 

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be 
sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the 
States so ratifying the Same. 

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the 
States present the Seventeenth Day of September in 
the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
Eighty-seven and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the Twelfth. In Witness whereof 
We have hereunto subscribed our Names, 

GEO WASHINGTON — 

Presdt and deputy from Virginia. 



John Languon, 
Nathaniel Goeham, 
Wm. Saml. Johnson, 

Alexandek Hamilton. 

Wil: Livingston, 
Wm. Paterson, 



B. Franklin, 
Robt. Mokeis, 
Tho: Fitsimons, 
James Wilson, 



Geo : Read, 
John Dickinson, 
Jaco : Broom. 

James M'Henrt, 
Danl. Careoll. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Nicholas Gilman. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

RuFus King. 

CONNECTICUT. 

RoGEE Sherman. 

NEW YORK. 

NEW JERSEY. 

David Brearlet, 
JoNA. Dayton. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Thomas Mifflin, 
Geo: Cltmee, 
Jared Ingersoll, 
Gouv: Moeeis. 

DELAWARE. 

Gunning Bedford, Jun'r, 
Richaed Bassett, 

MARYLAND. 

Dan: of St. Thos. Jenifer, 



Ixii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



John Blair, 



Wm. Blount, 
Hu. Williamson. 

j. rutledge, 
Charles Pinckney, 



William Few, 
Attest: 



VIRGINIA. 

Jas. Madison, Jr. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Rich'd Dobbs Spaioht, 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Charles Cotesworth Pincknbt, 
Pierce Butler. 

GEORGIA. 

Abr. Baldwin. 

WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 



ARTICLES 

IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OP, 

THE CONSTITUTION 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

Proposed hy Congress^ and ratified by the Legislatures of the several 
States, pursuant to the fifth article of the original Constitution. 

(AETICLE I.) 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people 
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a 
redress of grievances. 

(AETICLE II.) 

A. well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a 
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall 
not be infringed. 

(AETICLE III.) 

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, 
without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in 
a manner to be prescribed by Law. 

(AETICLE IV.) 
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no Wai'rants shall issue, but upon prob- 
able cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly 
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to 

be seized. 

Ixiii 



Ixiv AMENDMENTS. 

(AETICLE V.) 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand 
Jurj', except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; 
uor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice 
put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any 
Criminal Case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use, without just com- 
pensation. 

(AETICLE YI.) 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State 
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which 
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be 
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be con- 
fronted wnth the Aviti^esses against him; to have Compulsory 
process for obtaining Witnesses in his favour, and to have the 
Assistance of Counsel for his defence. 

(AETICLE VII.) 

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be pre- 
served, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined 
in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules 
of the common law. 

(AETICLE VIII.) 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im- 
posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

(AETICLE IX.) 
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall 
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the 
people. 

(AETICLE X.) 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- 
tution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 
States respectively, or to the people. 



AMENDMENTS. Ixv 

V 

(ARTICLE XI.) 

The Judicial powci-of the United States shall not be construed 
to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or 
by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. 

(AETICLE XII.) 

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by 
ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, 
shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; 
they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as Pi*esident, 
and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, 
and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as Presi- 
dent, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the 
number of v^otes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, 
and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United 
States, directed to the President of the Senate; — The President 
of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Re- 
presentatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then 
be counted; — The person having the greatest number of votes 
for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest 
numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as 
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immedi- 
ately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, 
the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each 
state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist 
of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a 
majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if 
the House of Representatives shall not choose a President when- 
ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth 
day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act 
as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional 
disability of the President. The person having the greatest 
number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, 
if such number be a majority' of the whole number of Electors 
appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two 
highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice- 
5 



Ixvi AMENDMENTS. 

President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds 
of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole 
number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitu- 
tionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that 
of Vice-President of the United States. 

(AETICLE XIII.) 

Section 1. 
IJfeither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish- 
ment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con- 
victed, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri- 
ate legislation. 

(AETICLE XIV.) 

Section 1. 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and sub- 
ject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States 
and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or 
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or iminunities 
of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive 
any person of life, liberty, or property,, without due process of 
law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pro- 
tection of the laws. 

Section 2. 

Eepresentatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole num- 
ber of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But 
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors 
for President and Vice-President of the United States, represent- 
atives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, 
or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of 
the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of 
age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, 
except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of 
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which 



AMENDMENTS. Ixvii 

the number of such male citizens sliall bear to the whole number 
of male citizens twenty-one j^ears of age in such State. 

Section 3. 
No person shall be a Senator, or representative in Congress^ 
or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office,, 
civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, 
who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, 
or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State 
Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to 
support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged 
in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or 
comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote 
of tAvo-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4. 

The validity of the public debt of the United States author- 
ized by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pen- 
sions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or 
rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States, 
nor any State, shall assume to pay any debt or obligation in- 
curred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave • 
but all such debts, obligations, and claims, shall be held illegixd. 
and void. 

Section 5. 

Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legisla- 
tion, the provisions of this article. 

The following is prefixed to the first fen"^ of the preceding amendrfients. 
CONGEESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday, the fourth of March, 
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. 

The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the tiinr 
of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order 
to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further 
declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added : And as ex- 

* It may be proper here to state that twelve articlcB of amendment were pro- 
posed by the first Congress, of which but ten were ratified by the States — th-s 



Ixviii A M E X D M E X T S. 

tending the givniud of public confidence in the Government, will 
best insure the beneficent end of its institution ; 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses 
eoncurx'ing, That the following Articles be proposed to the Legis- 
latures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution 
of the United States, all, or any of which articles, when ratifi.ed 
by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents 
and purposes, as part of the said Constitution ; viz. ; 

Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution 
of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and 
ratified by the Legislatures of the several States pursuant to the 
fifth article of the original Constitution. 

The first ten amendments of the Constitution were ratified by 
the States, as follows, viz. : 

By New Jersey, 20th November, 1789. 

B}' Maryland, 19th Decembei', 1789. 

By North Carolina, 22d December, 1789, 

By South Carolina, 19th Januarj', 1790. 

By New Hampshire, 25th January, 1790. 

By Delaware, 28th January, 1790. 

By Pennsylvania, 10th March, 1790. 

By New York, 27th March, 1790. 

By Khode Island, loth June, 1790. 

By Vermont, 3 November, 1791. 

By Virginia, 15 December, 1791. 

first and second in order not having been ratified by the requisite number of 
States. 

These two were as follows : 

Article the first.. ..After the first enumeration required by the first Article of 
(he Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, 
until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which, the proportion 
shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than one hundred 
Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand 
persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred, 
after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall 
not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representa- 
tive for every fifty thousand persons. 

Article second... .No law, varying the compensation for the services of the 
Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Represent- 
atives shall have intervened. 



AMENDMENTS. Ixix 

The folloicing is prefixed to the eleventh of the preceding amendments: 

THIRD CONGEESS OF THE UNITED STATES: 

At the first session, begun and held at the city of Philadelphia, in the 
State of Pennsylvania^ on Monday the second of December, one 
thousand, seven hundred and ninety-three. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United. 
States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses 
concurring, That the following Article be proposed to the Legis- 
latures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States; which when ratified by three-fourths 
of the said Legislatures shall be valid as part of the said Con- 
stitution, viz. : 

The following is prefixed to the twelfth of the preceding amendments: 

EIGHTH CONGEESS OF THE UNITED STATES: 
At the first session, begun and held at the city of Washington, in the 

Territory of Columbia, on Monday the seventeenth of October, one 

thousand eight hundred and three : 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled, Two thirds of both Houses 
concurring, that in lieu of the third paragraph of the first section 
of the second article of the Constitution of the United States, 
the following be proposed as an amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States, which when ratified by three-fourths of the 
legislatures of the several states, shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes, as part of the said Constitution, to wit: 

The first ten of the preceding amendments were proposed at 
the first session of the first Congress, of the United States, 25 
September, 1789, and were finall}^ ratified by the constitutional 
number of States, on the 15th day of December, 1791. The 
eleventh amendment was proposed at the first session of the 
third Congress, 5 March, 1794, and was declared in a message 
from the President of the United States to both houses of Con- 
gress, dated 8th January, 1798, to have been adopted by the con- 
stitutional number of States. The twelfth amendment was pro- 
posed at the first session of the eighth Congress, 12 December, 

1803, and was adopted by the constitutional number of States in 

1804, according to a public notice thereof by the Secretary of 
State, dated 25th September, of the same year. 




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AMERICAN BASTILE. 



COLO]S"EL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAK 

LAMBDIIs^ P, MILLIGAIT is of Irish clescent, and was 
born and raised in Belmont County, Ohio. His onl}' 
opportunities for acquiring an education were enjoyed before 
he was eight years of age, at which time he could read well. 
At seventeen he evinced a great desire to have an education 
preparatory to the study of medicine. His father, proud of 
his attainments, promised to send him to college, but was 
com|3elled to forego so doing by the opposition of his wife, 
who insisted that no distinction should be made in the edu- 
cation of their children. 

Subsequently he left home, regardless of the wishes and 
threats of his father, who declared that he would disinherit 
him if he did so. Without a dime in his pockets he began 
his career among strangers. Thrown upon his own resources, 
all the energies of his mind and body were exerted to obtain 
a livelihood, and to those efforts may be traced his after 
success. 

He had previously a\)andoned the idea of studying medi- 
cine, and had chosen the profession of law, which he read with 
great earnestness, and mastered with facility. He stood at 
the head of a class of nine, examined by a committee of the 
Supreme Court of Ohio, consisting of Judges Goodnow, Ken- 
non,and Cowan, Governor Shannon, Mr. Alexander, and Mr. 
Carroll. Of this class there are now living the Hon. Matthew 
Gaston, Cambridge, Ohio ; Hon. Peter Saltman, St. Clairs- 



72 AMEEICA NBAS TILE. 

ville, Ohio ; and the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, ex-Secretarj 
of War. 

A few years after, Colonel Milligan removed to Hunting- 
don, Indiana, where he still resides. For several years he 
suffered much from epilepsy and spinal meningitis, with 
jiaralysis of the lower limbs, during which time he was 
UDable to practise at his profession. 

In 1853, Colonel Milligan, having recovered his health, 
commenced the practice of his profession, and soon rose to 
the foremost rank at the bar. He is not a politician ; but, in 
1861, opposed with great energy every movement looking 
toward a collision between the North and South. 

In 1863, he addressed a meeting at Plymouth, Indiana; 
and by his speech most conclusively demonstrated that the 
war had neither been begun nor prosecuted to preserve the 
Union. He referred to the antecedents of the party then in 
power, their oft-repeated declarations of hostility to the Con- 
stitution, and the many opportunities for a compromise, con- 
sistent with the integrity of the Union, which had been 
spurned, and the war continued for the purpose of breaking 
down the influence of the agricultural districts of the coun- 
try, and elevating the moneyed and manufacturing interests, 
that the party in power might control the legislation of 
Congress. 

Detectives having reported the speech, the Republican press 
soon teemed with denunciatory articles, charging him with 
treason. Early in 1864, Dr. Zumro, a s|>ecial detective, was 
appointed to watch him. A part of the plan consisted in an 
arrangement to have the doctor arrested on some political 
charge, when he was to visit Colonel Milligan for counsel, 
gain his confidence, and learn his pei^onal sentiments. In 
pursuance of this arrangement, a military officer was sent 
from a distarit part of the State, and the arrest of Dr. Zumro 
made with great formality. This hireling sought the coun- 
sel of the Colonel, and employed him as attorney to defend 
him. The doctor, in his anxiety, played his part so poorly 
that he was detected, and the scheme failed. 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAIST. 73 

Ou the 13tb of August, in the same year, the Colonel ad- 
dressed a large meeting at Fort Wayne. A detective, Mr. 
Bush, was sent from Cincinnati purposely to report his speech, 
which he did in a manner to please his employers. The 
speech was an able and eloquent one, and prophetically pic- 
tured the future, which time has demonstrated. The Ad- 
ministration, and particularly Governor Morton, who was 
then a candidate for re-election, were greatly incensed at it, 
and resolved on the destruction of its author. Shortly after 
this. Colonel Milligan was taken sick ; erysipelas attacked his 
left leg. He lost the entire use of the limb, and was confined 
to bed. In this condition he remained for several days, his 
neighbors hourly expecting to hear of his death. 

While thus confined, on the 5th of October, 1864, about 
11 o'clock p. M., a train of cars stopped at his residence with 
a company of soldiers, under the command of Captain Case, 
who immediately surrounded his house, and arrested the 
Colonel without affidavit, warrant, or any form of authority. 
They kept the house guarded until four o'clock in the morn- 
ing, when they carried him to the cars, the captain repeatedly 
giving orders to his men that, upon the first noise of any 
kind, they must shoot the prisoner. The train conveying 
the prisoner arrived at Indianapolis, a distance of a liun- 
dred miles, about 3 o'clock p. m., where an infuriated mob 
of thousands thronged the streets, uttering threats and 
imprecations. Here he was transferred to an ambulance, 
and taken to General Hovey's headquarters, where he de- 
manded to be liberated on bail, offering to answ^er any charges 
that might be brought against him. This request was denied, 
and he was told that he had " no rights which a loyal citizen 
was bound to respect." Thence he was taken to the post 
commander's headquarters, who had received a telegram 
from an evil-disposed person, to the effect that the prisoner 
was not sick, but merely pretending to be so. 

The post-commander, Colonel Warner, burning with rage, 
denounced the prisoner in a coarse, vulgar, and even brutal 
manner ; avowing that no quarter should be shown him. 



74 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Colonel Milligan replied to this tirade of abuse, saying : " It 
is easy to make charges, but sometimes difficult to prove 
them." Colonel AYaruer told him that he would have to 
prove himself innocent, but that no Copperhead evidence 
would be taken. 

He was then taken to one of the temporary hospitals, and 
placed in an open shed. It was now 5 o'clock P. m. The Co- 
lonel, who had had no refreshments of any kind for twenty- 
four hours, was then furnished with some cold pork and 
hardtack, which he could not eat, and from exhaustion soon 
fell asleep. When he awoke he found himself literally cov- 
ered with vermin. The next day, workmen commenced build- 
ing a house around and over him, causing noise enough to 
distract a sick man whose nerves were already shattered by 
the suffering he had endured. The sawdust and chips from 
the work fell upon him, and in his bed, making his situation 
miserable. 

He remained confined in this place for ten days, surrounded 
by thousands of drunken soldiers, who had come home on 
furlough to vote for Governor Morton at the approaching 
election. Some of these miscreants manifested their loyalty 
by insulting him, pointing their guns at, and threatening to 
shoot him. " Loyal " citizens visited him to get a sight of 
their victim, and rejoice over their diabolical work. From 
this shed he was carried to a prison in the Federal court 
building, and placed in a room with a wretch, who, to save 
his own neck, had consented to play the spy upon him. 

He remained here until he, together with Colonel Wm. A. 
Bowles, Stephen Horsey, Andrew Humphrey, and Horace 
Heffner, was put upon trial, on the following charges, to all 
of which he pleaded not guilty. The charges and specifica- 
tions are too long to insert here in extenso. We give them 
in an abridged form, as contained in Wallace's United States 
Supreme Court Reports, page 6, vol. iv. (This case is fully 
reported in the above volume, covering 140 pages, and is one 
of the most important ever decided in this country.) From 
Wallace's Reports, we quote : 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAN. 7o 

" Lambdin P. Milligan, a citizen of the United States, and 
a resident and citizen of tlie State of Indiana, was arrested 
on the 5tli day of October, 1864, at his home in the said 
State, by the order of Brevet Major-General Ilovey, military 
commandant of the District of Indiana ; and, by tlie same 
authority, confined in a milicary prison at or near Indiana- 
polis, the capital of the State. On the 21st of the same month, 
he was placed on trial before a ' military commission,' con- 
vened at Indianapolis, by order of the said general, upon the 
following charges, preferred b}' Major Burnett, Judge Advo- 
cate of the Northwestern Military Department, namely : 

" 1st. ' Conspiring against the Government of the United 
States.' 

" 2d. ' Affording aid and comfort to rebels against the 
authority of the United States.' 

" M. ' Inciting insurrection.' 

" 4th. ' Disloyal practices ; ' and 

"5('A. 'Violation of the laws of war.' 

" Under each of these charges there were various specifica- 
tions. The substance of them was joining and aiding, at 
different times between October, 1863, and August, 1864, a . 
secret society known as the ' Order of American Knights,' 
or ' Sons of Liberty,' for the purpose of overthrowing the 
Government and duly constituted authorities of the United 
States ; holding communication with the enemy ; cons|)iring 
to seize munitions of war stored in the arsenals ; to liberate 
prisoners of war, etc. ; resisting the draft, etc., . . . ' at a 
period of war and armed rebellion against the authority of 
the United States, at or near Indianapolis,' (and various 
other places specified,) ' in Indiana, a State within the mili- 
tary lines of the army of the United States, and the theatre 
of military operations, and which had been and was con- 
stantly threatened to be invaded by the enemy.'" These were 
amplified and stated in various forms. 

We proceed with the trial. 

The commission which had been organized to try IT. II. 
Dodge, Esq., was directed to try these charges ; but, by the 



76 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

interpositiou of some influential persons who were anxioua 
for conviction, it was suljsequently reorganized. Induce- 
ments were held out to men who signified their willingness 
to convict in advance. The commission was enlarged, 
Stephens, Bennett, Williams, and Heath were added to it. 
N^othing now was required but the formalities of a mock 
trial. Conviction was sure. The chamber where the com- 
mission sat was close to the prison, and, night after night, it 
was made hideous by the army officers, who declared fidelity 
to the murderous adventure. The prisoners frequently heard 
the members of the commission declare their intention to 
hang them. Preferring the court to the camp, they were 
neither sparing of their pledges to convict, nor chaste in their 
terms of denunciation. The members of the commission 
were as obsequious to their employers as they were vulgar 
and insolent to the prisoners and their counsel. The Judge 
Advocate was Henry L. Burnett, whose talents and courage 
manifested themselves in acts of impudence and tyranny. 

An objection, raised by Colonel Milligan, as to the author- 
ity of the commission to try him, was overruled. 

The trial commenced with much pomp. Witnesses were 
hired, suborned, or intimidated. Testimony was manufac- 
tured to the morbid relish of an excited public. Reporters 
were called and sworn. False and exaggerated rumors were 
accepted as evidence. Pu]»lic excitement ran high, and 
clamor grew louder and louder. Lawlessness assumed form. 
Thick clouds of terror gathered along the horizon, and, rising 
higher and higher, now towered to the zenith — their folds 
livid with blood. Friends, with few exceptions, retired with 
pallid cheeks. Heflher sank a victim to his fears, took the 
witness stand, and swore as men swear with a halter around 
their necks. Colonel M. renuiined firm and collected during 
this trying ordeal, and exhorted his counsel to be true and 
steadfast, regardless of the consequences. 

About the time of the trial he was removed from the 
Federal court building, to the Soldiers' Home prison. He was 
forced to walk the distance, over a mile, upon a crutch, and, 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAN. 77 

never having tried to walk on one before, the effort was too 
much for him. It paralyzed his arm, and threw him into a 
fever, from which he did not recover for several days. In 
tliis prison he was put into a small cell, near a pork-house 
and hog-yard, and the stench emitted from these, together 
with the squealing of the hogs not yet slaughtered, com- 
bined to render the place horrible. The prison had been 
planked up with rough, green plank, placed perpendicularly, 
the joints of which remained unbroken. These had shrunk 
until the cracks were a full inch wide. 

The weather was extremely cold, and through these cracks 
the chill winds of winter whistled in bitter mockery on the 
half-starved and scantily clothed inmates. These crevices re- 
mained open for more than two weeks after the Colonel oc- 
cupied the cell. There were four persons in the cell with 
him, but it had been occupied by a much larger number, and 
was as filthy as it could possibly be. 

On some occasions when the rations were served, the Colo- 
nel could not get to the cubby-hole as quickly as the servant 
thought he ought, and for that reason threw his rations into 
the filth on the floor. The prison had a hall in the centre, 
and a row of cells on each side. At the south end of the 
hall was a large room as wide as the hall and both rows of ' 
cells combined. In this room more than tliree hundred per- 
sons were crowded, rendering the atmosphere suffocating and 
sickening. There was one general roof over the whole build- 
ing. The attic remained undivided, and was occupied by the 
guard ; and as the cells were merely covered with lattice- 
work, upon which they patrolled, the whole upper part of the 
building was in communication with the lower part. When 
the south wind blew, pestilential exhalations from the large 
room filled every cell. Xone of the occupants could remedy 
this, because the room was so crowded that filth was un- 
avoidable. 

In the hall opposite the cell occupied by the Colonel was a 
trap-door, which led to the coal-hole, an excavation ten feet 
deep, without light or ventilation. This was a place of pun- 



78 AMEEICAX BASTILE, 

ishment for refractory soldiers, citizens, bountj' -jumpers, and 
drunken men. The innocent and tlie guilty were alike its 
occupants. Any one who fell under the ban of the com- 
mandant, or his subordinates, was consigned to that horrible 
place. Some were taken out alive and survived, others were 
taken to the hospital to die, while a few died in it. 'An ex- 
speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, named 
Tarboth, was placed in this modern " black-hole " at 10 
o'clock P.M., and taken out at 9 a.m., the following morning, 
death-stricken. In two days afterward his funeral was 
noticed in the papers. 

The hall in this prison was made hideous with the groans 
of the victims of cruelty, who had been strung up with a 
hand-cord round the wrists, until their agonies were more 
than humanity could silently endure. 

We give one instance where a poor Irishman, who hailed 
from Kendallville, Indiana, was subjected to this inquisitorial 
torture. He was found on the streets dressed in blue, was 
seized, brought before Colonel Warner, who directed that he 
be swung up one half-hour, then put in the coal-hole an hour, 
and this treatment alternated until he would tell to what 
regiment he belonged. Sergeant Wm. Williams had charge 
-of him. He inquired of him to what regiment he belonged. 
He said he " did not belong to any regiment, that he had en- 
listed at Kendallville, as a substitute for a drafted man, whose 
name he gave, and that he had been directed to report at 
Camp Carrington, and that he had not yet been assigned to 
any regiment." 

This answer, although not doubted, was not the answer 
that Colonel Warner had directed him to exact, and the 
sergeant could not release him. The poor victim begged the 
sergeant to report his answer to Colonel Warner, but he re- 
plied that the colonel had gone to bed, and his orders were 
to continue the punishment until he answered to what regi- 
ment he belonged. This cruelty was inflicted throughout 
the entire night and until 10 o'clock A. m., the following 
day, when the colonel ordered its suspension. 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAN. 79 

This poor fellow lost the use of both hands. Of all the 
punishment inflicted on Colonel ]\Iilligan, as he afterward 
remarked, none was so severe as the agonizing wails of the 
poor victims, who were punished, in many instances, to 
gratify the caprice of the commander of the post. 

The Colonel was found guilty on all the charges, and sen- 
tenced to suffer death by hanging. 

The commission became intoxicated, and published their 
sentence the same night he was found guilty, but it created 
little sensation, as the public had been anticipating it. The 
Colonel remained in the situation we have described, specu- 
lating much as to the final result, until the assassination of 
Mr. Lincoln, when the public clamored loudly for blood. 
Heavy irons were placed on the prisoners, the guards were 
doubled, and relieved each other with imposing formality. 
This continued until the 8th of May, when the sentence was 
approved by President Johnson. lie was ordered to be ex- 
ecuted on Friday, the 19th of the same month, between 12 
and 3 o'clock. On the 10th, Milligan filed his petition in the 
Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Indiana. 
K^otliing further occurred until the 18th, when an order was 
read to him respiting his execution until the 2d of June, 
and then it was stated that no further interference with the 
sentence would take place. The friends of Colonel Milligan 
exhausted their arguments in endeavoring to persuade him 
to write to the President for a pardon. But all of no avail. 
For two weeks he remained in confinement awaiting his 
doom, passing many otherwise lonely hours but for the com- 
pany of his little son, twelve years of age, who remained 
with him. 

Of his fellow-prisoners. Horsey was humble and Bowles 
was old. A victim was demanded, and Colonel Milligan 
was selected. The Indiana delegation in Congress had filed 
a protest against the interference of the President with the 
sentence of the court martial. Radical papers in and out 
of the State, with a few honorable exceptions, teemed with 
vituperation at the delay. Letter-writers and stump speakers 



80 AMEHICANBASTILE. 

were imperious in their doinands. Pulpit and bar-room 
orators were eloquent in their appeals for the sacrifice. The 
populace clamored more and more for blood. Friends who 
attempted to petition were marked and forced to desist. 
Jealousy and hate revelled in the anticipated carnival, until 
friends and foes looked upon the ti-agedy as a fixed fact. 
ISTow retaliation was assuming form, though repressed by 
prudent counsels. It was seething and surging and growing 
into an almost irresistible fury, when Governor Morton, 
knowing that he was the cause of the outrage, and would 
be held personalb/ responsible, instituted extraordinary mea- 
sures to counteract his own work. 

The Governor commissioned Hon. J. AV. Pettit to visit the 
President and protest, in the name of the State, against the 
execution of the sentence. At 9 o'clock p. m., on the Ist of 
June, the Colonel was informed that his sentence had been 
commuted to imprisonment for life, at hard labor, in the Ohio 
penitentiary. It was a sad night for him. lie knew the 
fate that awaited him when placed in the custody of those 
who were selected for their cruelty, each of whom felt that 
he constituted an important portion of the commonwealth, 
arid to him belonged the honor of his conviction. The Colo- 
nel had fully weighed the matter, and preferred that the sen- 
tence of death should be executed than that he should suffer 
imprisonment for life. In the event of their execution of the 
sentence, he had prepared a number of written instructions 
for the conduct of a suit, under the laws of the State, for his 
imprisonment and murder ; and, with the skill of a profound 
practitioner, had written in a clear, smooth hand, as if in his 
study, an address to be read by himself, on the scafl:bld, to 
the people. 

In this gloomy, fdl'bidding cell, he had been immured from 
December to June ; and now, the weather being warm, the 
want of ventilation, together with inhaling the fetid air, 
which at times sickened him to faintness, caused his health 
to become so affected that he was reduced to a more skeleton. 
During this time he had not seen the liglit of day, except 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P, MILLIGAN. 81 

when taken before the commission ; and to all human appear- 
ances, he was within a few hours of that night that knows 
no morning. It was day without light ; night without hope. 

"Here no dear glimpse of the sun's lovely face 
Strikes through the solid darkness of the place : 
No dawning morn does her kind red display — 
One slight, weak beam would here be thought the day ; 
No gentle stars, with their fair gems of light, 
OiFend the tyrannous and unquestion'd night." 

When the news of the order for commutation was circu- 
lated, it was currently reported that General Ilovey would 
disregard it and have the sentence executed. jVfuch excite- 
ment prevailed in the city. Colonel Gardiner, who was in 
command of the post, to prevent a collision, set out with 
Colonel Milligan and his companions, in the morning, before 
it was fairly light, under a strong guard, to the penitentiary. 

Here the Colonel and his fellow-prisoners were placed 
under the control of a modern Simon, as cruel a wretch as 
ever inflicted punishment on man or brute. The felon's garb 
was put upon them, and the Colonel placed in a room ove? 
an oven, in which files were tempered in liquid lead. The 
exhalations from the smouldering charcoal were dittused 
throughout this room, and made it notoriously unhealthy. 
Every one who had occupied it for any length of time had 
lost his life. The Colonel could not endure it long. Tie wac< 
taken sick and conveyed to the hospital, where he remained 
many days very ill. During the first two weeks of his con- 
finement here, and while he was able to work, almost every 
fine evening he was exhibited to curious visitors. 

This prison is constructed of heavy masonry, with a build- 
ing within of the same material, upon which the sun never 
shines. The inner building is situated in the centre of the 
prison, with a hall on each side. It is divided into cells, of 
which there are five tiers. The cells are about three feet 
wide, six and a half long, and six feet high. They all open 
into this closed hall. The second cell, occupied by tke Colo- 
nel, was on the ground-floor on the north side, and so damp 
6 



82 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

that the stniAV in his bed would not rattle, and the hay ic 
his pillow was equally as bad. A thousand men were con- 
fined in these cells, all breathing the air that circulated in 
the hails, and which was poisoned by the noxious exhalations 
of men afflicted with all kinds of diseases. While confined 
in this prison. Colonel Milligan contracted a cold, from the 
eftects of which he became deaf and lost the sense of smell. 
He was so bad that he could neither hear the ringing of bells 
nor smell assafnetida. 

The most disgusting part of this prison was the dining- 
room. The prisoners were frequently fed on hash for break- 
fast. This was made by taking the refuse scraps of meat, 
and putting them, together with onions and potatoes, in a 
large mill, and grinding them into hash. This mash was 
then placed on a table, where it was allowed to remain over 
night, food for the rats that swarmed the prison. To this 
room the prisoners were taken for breakfast, when they 
found the food covered with files and vermin. The room 
being poorly ventilated, the stench arising from this semi- 
putrid meat was almost intolerable, and many of the prison- 
ers turned away from the loathsome mass, unable, even with 
the cravings of hunger, to endure it. 

After Colonel Milligan's sentence had been approved, and 
ordered to be carried into execution, he, through his counsel, 
sued out a writ of habeas corpus. General Hovey declared 
he would disregard it. The judges of the Circuit Court of 
Indiana were divided, and the case was certified to the 
Supreme Court of the United States in banco. After he had 
suftered several months of imprisonment, and the time for" 
hearing his case was approaching, endeavors were made by 
■some parties to stay the proceedings, as his case was the only 
one before the court embodvinsf the leo-ality of a " militarv 
■commission " to try a civilian where the civil courts were un- 
obstructed and in full force. IS'umerous persons, alleging 
that they had been to AYashington, and knew the state of 
feeling pervading society, endeavored to persuade him to 
withdraw the suit from the Supreme Court, and no difiiculty 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAN. Go 

would be experienced in getting a pardon from the President. 
To all sucli ofF^'S he answered emphatically, " ISTo." ' 

Colonel Milligan had not forgotten the reply of the Presi- 
dent to his counsel, Mr. Coffroth, when the latter asked a 
commutation or a respite of the sentence, until the case could 
be heard in the Supreme Court, to wit : " What I the very fact 
of the prisoner resortif^g to the court upon a technical question of 
jurisdiction is a confession of his guilt " and, assigning that as 
his reason, refused the application. About the time the court 
was expected to decide the case, a member of the Ohio Legis- 
lature sought, through the warden, an introduction to the 
Colonel. He assured the prisoner that the court would sus- 
tain the authority of the "military commission ;" that the 
w^ar was then over, and with it had passed away all that 
animosity of feeling engendered by it ; that it was the desire 
of the party in power to obliterate all rememljrances of the 
difference of opinion, as far as possible ; that the Administra- 
tion desired to grant a full and free pardon to all ; but that 
this could not be done without the Administration should 
first be solicited to do so, and especially while Colonel Milli- 
gan was pressing his claim before the court ; that a ruling in 
his favor would be not only a direct condemnation of the 
whole policy of the President, but of the Government ; that 
the peace of the country required that " bygones should be 
bygones," and that all had suffered excitement to engender 
feelings that had better be forgotten. Colonel Bowles, w^ho 
was sick and suffering from the experiments of an ignorant 
empiric, and was very weak, both physically and mentally, 
yielded to the importunities which environed him, and gave 
an order to dismiss his case, but his counsel disregarded his 
instructions. 

At length the case came up for argument in the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

Mr. J. B. McDonald, Mr. J. S. Black, 3Ir. J. E. Garfield, 
and 31r. David, Dudley Field, of counsel for the petitioner, 
Lamhdin P. 3Ii.lligan. 

Mr. Speed, Attorney-General United States; 3h\ Stanherry 



84 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

and Mr. B. F. Butler^ special counsel of the United States, 
contra. 

The case was most ably and elaborately argued ou both 
sides. The argument of the Hon. J. S. Black was one of 
the most able, eloquent, and erudite forensic eftbrts that has 
been made in this or any other country. Mr. Justice Davis 
delivered the opinion of the court. Among the fourteen 
points enumerated in the syllabus of the case as decided, were: 

l6'^. " Military commissions, organized during the late civil 
war, in a state not invaded and not engaged in rebellion, in 
which the Federal courts were open, and in the proper and 
unobstructed exercise of their judicial functions, had no juris- 
diction to try, convict, or sentence, for any criminal offence, a 
citizen who was neither a resident of a rebellious State, nor 
a prisoner of war, nor a person not in the military or naval 
service." 

And Congress could not invest them with any such power. 

2d. " The guarantee of trial by jury, contained in the Con- 
stitution, was intended for a state of war as well as a state 
of peace, and is equally binding upon rulers and people, at 
all times and under all circumstances." 

Sd. " The Federal authority having been unopposed in the 
State of Indiana, and the Federal courts open for the trial of 
offences and the redress of grievances, the usages of war 
could not, under the Constitution, afford any sanction for 
the trial there of a citizen in civil life, not connected with the 
military or naval service, by a military tribunal, or for any 
offence whatever." 

4ith. " ISTeitlier the President, nor Congress, nor the Judi- 
ciary can disturb any one of the safeguards of civil liberty 
incorporated into the Constitution, except so far as the right 
is given to suspend, in certain cases, the privilege of the writ 
of habeas corpus.' ' 

5th. " A citizen, not connected with the military service, 
and resident in a State where the courts are all open, and in 
the proper exercise of their jurisdiction, cannot, even when 
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended, be 



COLONEL L A M B D I N P. M I L L I G A N. 85 

tried, convicted, or sentenced otherwise than by tlie ordinary 
courts of law." 

Gth. " Suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas 
co/'jHis does not suspend the writ itself. The writ issues, as a 
matter of course, and, on its return, the court decides whether 
the applicant is denied the right of proceeding any further," 

7th. "A person who is a resident of a loyal State, where he 
w^as arrested, who was never a resident in any State engaged 
in rebellion, nor connected with the military or naval service, 
cannot be regarded as a prisoner of war." 

This decision struck the shackles from Colonel Milligan, 
and he was free — free from the grasp of tyrants — free from 
arbitrary power — free from fiendish sycophants. 

MARY E. SITRRATT. 

In this connection, Avhile it is fresh in the minds of the 
jDeople, w^e briefly refer — as it does not properly enter into 
the subject of our history — to the arrest, trial, and execution 
of jVIary E. Surratt, of the city of Washington, and the Fede- 
ral capital of the United States, by a military commission. 
This lady was regarded as one of the accomplices of the 
conspirators who assassinated President Lincoln. She was 
arrested and tried by a military commission, composed as 
follows, under the following orders : 

War Department, 
Adjutant-General's Office, 
3Iai/ m, 1865. 
Special Orders, No. 216. 

Par. 91. — The commission will be composed as follows: 

Major-Gen. David Hunter, U. S. Volunteers. 
Major-Gen. Lewis AVallace, U. S. Volunteers. 
Brevet Major-Gen. August V. Ivautz, U. S. Volunteers. 
Brig.-Gen. Albion P. Howe, IT. S. Volunteers. 
Brig.-Gen. Robt. S. Foster, U. S, Volunteers. 
Brevet Brig.-Gen. Jas. A. Ekin, U. S. Volunteers. 



8G AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

Brig.-Gen. T. M. Harris, U. S. Volunteers. 

Brevet Col. C. H. Tomkins, U. S. Army. 

Lieut.-Col. David R. Cleudenin, Eighth Illinois Cavalry. 

Brig.-Gen, Jos. Holt, Judge Advocate. 

By order of tlie President of the United States. 

(Signed) E. D. TOWNSENB, 

Assistant Adjutant General. 

The trial, conviction and execution of Mrs. Surratt by a 
military commission were regarded by lawyers generally, 
and the people who were not prejudiced by partisan feelings, 
as illegal and wrong, and the evidence adduced as insufficient 
to convict her of actual participation in the crime. Popular 
opinion was opposed to her execution, and since the decision 
of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Milligan 
case has been announced, the public sentiment of those entitled 
to respect is unanimous in the belief that her execution was 
a political as well as extra-judicial murder. 

Her execution is a foul blot in American history, and will 
always remain a stigma upon the character of those who 
were instrumental in accomplishing the work. 

Colonel Bowles reflected severely on Colonel Milligan for 
refusino; to agree to a dismissal of the case. The Colonel 
replied that he " spurned the President's pardon, and that 
he was not a fit subject for a pardon, that he had done no- 
thing that he would not do again, and that the President 
should ask his pardon for the violation of law by approving 
a false finding of an illegal body." 

Though sufiering from disease and confinement in a loath- 
some, pestilential hospital, overworked, and now fed on bread 
and meat with a decoction called coftee, sweetened with sor- 
ghum molasses, and shut out from the world, he boldly battled 
for his rights, and held before that august tribunal a ques- 
tion which involved the liberties of millions of people. 

Upon receiving information of the decision of the court 
denying the jurisdiction of the military commission to try 



COLONEL L A M B D I N P. M I L L I G A N. 87 

civilians — a decision that enthroned the law and snatched 
the sceptre frora the grasp of the mailed tyrant of military 
despotism, and brought gladness to the numerous friends of 
constitutional liberty — the Colonel wrote a note to the ward- 
en, calling attention to the fact, and requesting him to in- 
form himself of his duty, and that his duty and the Colonel's 
wishes tended in the same direction. He then sent for a 
friend to learn the name of a notary, and also what judge 
was accessible. Before the notary arrived, Mr. Cotfroth 
reached the city, and had a writ of habeas corpus sued out 
and the Colonel discharged, afier an imprisonment of eighteen 
months. It was now evening. Mr. Coffroth also had a writ 
sued out for Colonel Bowles and Mr. Horsey, but, before it 
could be served, an order came from the President directing 
the warden to discharge all the prisoners. 

After receiving many friends at the Neil House, during 
the evening and the next morning, he started at noon, April 
12th, 1866, for home, without any intimation of the joyful 
reception that awaited him, which we copy from the papers 
of the day. 

"The return of Colonel L. P. Milligan to his home, on last 
Thursday morning, was the occasion of a demonstration, on the 
part of his friends and neighbors, to which all history fur- 
nishes but one parallel, that is, the ovation of welcome which 
greeted the immortal Demosthenes upon his return to Pirseus, 
from his exile at Megara. As the great Athenian was re- 
ceived, upon his arrival in that city, by its magistrates and 
dignitaries and citizens, so was our illustrious fellow-citizen 
received by the Mayor, the Common Council, and all tlie 
citizens, with the utmost manifestation of affection and joy, 
blended with sorrow and indi "-nation at the flagitious wrono-s 
and cruel persecution to which he had been subjected during 
the last eighteen months. Colonel Milligan was released, as 
we stated last week, upon a writ of habeas corpus sued out by 
his attorney, Hon. J. K. Cotfroth, who had gone to Columbus 
for that purpose. He was set at liberty on the afternoon of 
last Tuesday, and on the evening of that day we received a 



88 AMERICAN BASTILE. • 

message to that effect. ^Ve issued an extra immediately, 
which was distributed the next day ; but far in advance of 
the extra ^ the gratifying news spread, as on the wings of the 
wind, in all directions, and occasioned universal joy. On 
AYednesday evening, a i»arty of gentlemen, who had been 
chosen by Colonel Milligan last May to receive his remains in 
the event of his execution, went to Peru for the purpose of 
escorting him home. This party consisted of Messrs. Charles 
H. Lewis, John Roche, Samuel F. Day, John Zeigler, and 
Rev. R. A. Curran. Mr. Geo. R. Corlew was also of the 
party, but he had accompanied Mr. Coftroth to Columbus. 
Messrs. Milligan, Coftroth, and Corlew arrived at Peru at a 
late hour, on Wednesday night : notwithstanding this, cannon 
were iired and other demonstrations of joy made. Despotism 
had succumbed to Constitutional Law, and its victim was 
free ! There was cause for rejoicing. 

" Thursday morning, at Huntington, was ushered in by the 
roar of cannon, and at a very early hour the people began to 
flock in from every direction, to welcome their distinguished 
fellow-citizen to his old home. Every adjacent county was 
duly represented in this grand spontaneous ovation. Every 
point where the intelligence had reached that Colonel M. 
would be home ' on Thursday ' Avas represented, and all 
were burning with a desire to see him, to welcome him, and 
to assure him of their sympathy and friendship. The train 
from the west, conveying the party, moved up to the station 
amid the waving of handkerchiefs and hats, the wildest ac- 
clamation of the immense concourse, the music of the brass 
bands, and the loud thunder of cannon. The appearance of 
the tall and dignified form of Colonel M. on the platform 
was greeted with a fresh burst of enthusiasm, and a simul- 
taneous movement of the throng was made to grasp him by 
the hand. When his manly, graceful, but emaciated form, 
upon whose features it appeared that every ' god had set his 
seal to give assurance of a ?/ia7?,' became recognized, as it 
was by all who had met him before, and instinctively by 
those who had not, there would have been a cheer that would 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAN. 89 

have made the welkin ring, but the hearts of all were too full 
to give utterance to any voice, either of joy or sorrow. Mr. 
Cotfroth formally introduced Colonel Milligan in a few neat 
and appropriate remarks, 

" Hon. Wm. C. Kocher, Mayor, surrounded by the Common 
Council, and in behalf of the town, then delivered a beauti- 
ful and impressive address of welcome. He said : 

'"Colonel Milligan: In behalf of your fellow-citizens of 
Huntington, and I may say in behalf of this large assembly 
of people collected together from the surrounding country, I 
bid you a welcome once more to your home, to mingle with 
your family and these people, who have so long and so well 
known you, and who have long since looked upon you as a 
man of eminent legal ability, a statesman, and one wha has 
ever been true to the Constitution and laws of the country. 
On the 5th of October, 1864, while at home, surrounded by 
the family you loved, lying prostrate upon a bed of afHiction, 
at the dark hour of midnight you were ruthlessly dragged 
away from family and friends, and conveyed to a political 
Bastile, where you were confined for months, without any ac- 
cusation made against you. Charges were then preferred for 
what ? Treason ! Treason to what ? Treason not against the 
Government, but that you did not support the Administra- 
tion, whose principles were not in accordance with the plain 
and broad teachings of the Constitution of your country. 
Tried by a mock court, principally composed of drunkards — 
men who were not familiar with the first principles of law — 
you were condemned to be hanged until you were dead — 
dead ! Through the infiuence of friends your sentence was 
commuted to imprisonment for life. You were conveyed in 
irons to the Ohio penitentiary, where for a long time you 
occupied a cell dedicated alone to felons. Your case was 
brought before the Supreme Court of the United States. 
After long and laborious arguments of the most eminent 
counsel of the country, a Republican court decided that you 
had been illegally condemned and sentenced. 

" ' To-day, your fellow-citizens at home, and all good citizens 



90 AMEEICANBASTILE. 

throughout the land, look upon your arrest and imprison- 
ment as an outrage upon American liberty, a dark spot upon 
the pages of American history. You come home to-day 
honored and beloved. You come to enjoy the society of 
friends and neighbors. You come home to obey the Consti- 
tution and laws, as you have done during your entire life. 
This large assembly of your fellow-citizens bears me witness 
of the fact. While they look upon you to-day, their hearts 
are filled with emotions of joy, that you are once more among 
them, enjoying your liberty, and the society of family and 
friends. 

"'They know that your actions and your sentiments in the 
past will be a guarantee for the future. Therefore they know 
you, they trust 3'ou. In their behalf, again I say, thrice wel- 
come, Colonel Milligan.' 

" Colonel Milligan's response was particularly happy. 
Though his voice was w^eak, and the occasion one requiring 
much self-control, yet he did infinite credit to himself in all 
respects. He responded as follows : 

"'Mr. Mayor: Friends and neighbors, and such I know 
you are, did my sense of propriety call for an extended 
response to so imposing a reception, I have neither the physi- 
cal nor mental ability to give it ; but, overcome by the spon- 
taneous enthusiasm of the occasion, the acclamations of 
gladness that greet me, the tears of joy that flow from the 
thousands around me fill my bosom with emotions that have 
no utterance, and I can only thank you for so proud a testi- 
monial. I prize it because it comes from you^ my neighbors, 
with whom I have spent the best energies of my life, and 
from whom I never concealed the most secret aspirations of 
my heart. I value it more because it is not the addled pa- 
geant of a giddy multitude tendered to a great name, whose 
success may have lent dignity to crime ; but it is the un- 
tutored expression of your conviction that I never wronged 
my country or my fellow-man ; nor did those who clamored 
loudest for my oppression ever suspect me of any wrong. I 
thank you, and accept it as an approval of my life as a citi- 



COLONEL LAMBDIN P. MILLIGAN. 91 

zen and neiglibor, and a proof that it is not the acts or words 
of others that can degrade a man, but that each must stand 
upon the basis of his own manhood. 

" ' What revolutions in government or society have inter- 
vened since my sechision I know not ; but I am, and always 
have been, opposed to revolutions, believing that seldom, if 
ever, have their fruits equalled their cost in treasure, blood, 
and moral retrogression. I thank you, friends and neigh- 
bors, for this glowing tribute of esteem, and I would be the 
more happy recipient of it if I was sure that, through the 
ordeal which I have just passed, my deportment was worthy 
of so flattering a token. Your kindness has imposed upon 
me obligations that I will never be able to discharge, and 
must remain unrequited ; but to live among you, and com- 
mingling, as heretofore, our eftbrts for the promotion of the 
interests of our country and the happiness of our race, is the 
highest ambition of my heart. My friends, I must leave 
you. There is one I have not yet seen, who has wept most 
for my misfortunes, but, I hope and trust, will never have 
occasion to blush for any act of mine, and whose claims to 
my presence I cannot resist. Thanking you again, please 
excuse any further remarks.' 

" Colonel Milligan then retired. A carriage was in waiting, 
in which were seated the committee above named, who had 
been appointed by the Colonel to binng home his remains. 
They escorted him to his residence, about a mile from the 
court-house, followed by hundreds. There was a perfect 
jam at his house from that until late at night. In the 
streets, from his residence to the great meeting, there was a 
grand double procession marching and counter-marching. 

" The public meeting was kept up all the afternoon, and 
until late in the evening. Speeches were made by distin- 
guished men from all parts of the country, who had assem- 
bled to welcome the Colonel to his home. Resolutions of 
respect and sympathy were passed, and his house was 
thronged for many days with persons offering testimonials 
of respect." 



REV. K J. STEWART. 

A CONSTITUTION" may be set aside by the political ne- 
cessities of men in power ; houses and towns may be 
destroyed under military necessity, and vested rights maybe 
disregarded by men who seek to gain or maintain empire for 
the public good. But no cause can ultimately succeed, whose 
leaders openly disregard the rights of the Church, and tram- 
ple upon the persons of innocent and helpless men, women, 
and children, whose only fault is that they cannot agree 
with them in devastating homes and subverting their gov- 
ernment. 

Men, therefore, who were loyal to the United States Gov- 
ernment during the war, but at the same time desired to be 
loyal to the great interests of religion, and to the interests 
of our commoD humanity, must be vexed, if not fearful of 
divine retribution, as they discover, if such persons can ever 
venture to read, what history must reveal. 

In the fall of 1861, the first year of the war. Rev. K. J. 
Stewart, a clergyman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Alex- 
andria, Va., was rudely interrupted while at the altar of the 
church, on the Lord's day, and in the act of offering up 
prayers for all Christian rulers and magistrates, by a detail 
of armed men, under the command of a captain, lieutenant, 
and sergeant, by the direct authority of the Government of 
the United States, under circumstances of peculiar sacrilege, 
tyranny, and shame. The alleged ground of the arrest was 
that he refused to pray for the President of the United 
States. The true object was to intimidate and compel the 
clergy of the Border States to withdraw the support and con- 
solation of the Christian religion from a stricken people, who 

92 



EEV. K. J. STEWAET. 93 

Hed to it as tlieir only hope, and who used it to strengthen 
themselves to great endurance. 

It will be seen that the whole matter was planned at Wash 
ington, by the head of the State Department ; that it was 
executed by agents selected with reference to the moral de- 
gradation of the work, and that it was done deliberately ; 
that the Government refused to repudiate the act, and that 
the time, mode, and sequel were a refinement upon the atro- 
cities perpetrated on religion in the reign of the bloody Mary. 

Nor has any apology ever been made, or any reparation 
offered. A quiet and peaceful minister of the Gosjiel was 
arrested without cause, condemned without trial, his church 
closed, and subsequently polluted and ruined — the people 
scattered and shut out from public worship, and he driven 
forth a homeless wanderer. And all this without the sha- 
dow of military necessity or political obstruction. For the 
clergyman had not refused to use the forms of prayer pre- 
scribed in any and all places where he sojourned ; and the 
people had been so often arrested in their beds at night, that 
they were as a flock of timid sheep, unarmed, and incapable 
of resistance, who crowded together in their fold, the tem- 
ple of God, to worship Him and seek protection from those 
who, with a refinement of cruelty, came upon them almost 
every night, burned their houses, and took away to prison 
men, women, and children. 

It was indeed a reign of terror. No man was safe, no 
place, or sanctuary, or conduct was secure. Laws were set 
aside ; rank, character, and religious principles only invited 
ridicule, insult, or hatred. Few found themselves so secure 
as to be safe in asking justice for a fellow-citizen, and none 
thought of mercy to the imprudent. 

It was one of those solemn occasions when even the most 
hardened men are subdued. The priest was about cele- 
brating the supper of our blessed Lord — the silent but elo- 
quent emblems of love were upon the altar. In order to 
avoid any embarrassment or misunderstanding in the conduct 
of the services, the priest had written to the Department 



94 AME-EICANBASTILE. 

and explained his exact position, (lie was personally known 
to more than one of the heads of the Departments.) 

The gentlemanly officer in charge as military governor of 
the district had been invited to he present and inspect the 
services, which he reported to the Government as unexcep- 
tionable, except in the private feelings of the people and the 
non-committal nature of the prayers. 

The priest had taken the additional precaution to explain 
from the desk, that while the prayer appointed to be used 
for the President of the Confederate States was voluntarily 
omitted, being an American citizen, he could not allow 
the State to dictate to the Church what petition should 
be asked of the Great King. That it would be better to die 
than to allow the Church to be used as a political tool. 

In order to avoid the possibility of mistake, an old sermon 
had been preached ; but it alluded to the historical fact that 
all our most precious things were " blood-bought," as was 
that salvation now about to be commemorated. But while 
these people were thus seeking strength in and from our 
blessed Lord, in their eucharistic feast, that they might the 
more constantly subdue their excited passions and yield due 
obedience to the stern powers that were over them, two emis- 
saries of that very Government were engaged in noting down 
from the distant galleries such words as might justify medi- 
tated outrage. 

Captain. " All precious things are ' blood-bought ; ' that means 
that freedom is blood-bought; it means the Magna Charta is 
blood-bought; it is aimed at the President's proclamation. Write 
it down as treason. Damn the priests! I intend to make them 
preach and pray my way. We 'II see which has the longest sword ^ 
their master^ or ours! " 

Government agent. '•'•If I break this fdlow down, all the rest 
will cave in.'' 

It was then arranged that they should return and report 
to the head of the State Department at Washington ; that 
they should come back to church on the next Sunday; 
that the most desperate characters should be selected, armed, 



EEV. K. J. STEWART. 95 

and brought to church ; and that in the midst of public 
worship this armed band should surround the minister while 
in the very act of presenting the request of the people to 
his God, and, by presenting sabres and revolvers at his breast, 
they would compel him to say such prayers as they should 
dictate. 

This was carried out to a fuller extent than they contem- 
plated. The high official who had authority from the State 
Department to set aside all laws, and arrest any one, even 
the general in command, stood before the altar of God and 
demanded of his ambassador to pervert the power of religion 
to the purposes of political jurisprudence, and pray at his 
dictation. The officers and men formed around the altar. 
The minister calmly continued : 

'■'■From all evil and mischief ; from all sedition^ privy con- 
spiracy — 

The people. " Good Lord^ deliver us.'' 

Minister. " Bless all Christian rulers and magistrates, and 
give them grace to execute justice and maintain truth.'' 

Government officer. " You are a traitor ! in the name and by 
the authority of the President of the United States, I arrest you!" 

The minister, finding, in the indescribable confusion which 
had ensued, that his friends were likely to become involved 
in trouble, (for men, whose ideas of religious toleration were 
American, were becoming mad by oppression,) slowly arose, 
(but not until an officer had wrested the holy book from his 
hands, and dashed it on the floor,) and facing the chief 
officer, said, (as if remembering his Master's words,) " ' Let 
these go, take me ; ' but before I yield myself up to you, I sum- 
mon you to appear before the bar of the King of kings, to answer 
the charge of interrupting his ambassador, ivhile in the house 
of God, and in the discharge of his duty." 

Conscious-stricken, the whole band fell back, and one of 
them remonstrated at the proceedings ; but the order was 
given, and two sergeants, with drawn revolvers, had the 
honor of escorting a surpliced priest to prison, through the 
streets of the city. There were attendant circumstances, 



96 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

such as the dragging through the streets young and delicate 
females of his family and friends, persons whose rank, sex, 
and tenderness of years should have shielded them from the 
brutal gaze of the street mobs : circumstances which were 
enough to make wise men mad. 

And this was on the Lord's day, and under the precincts 
of the seat of Government. General Montgomery said to 
them: '■'■What! could you not come on a week-day f Could you 
not have had some sort of investigation or trial? Could you not 
have consulted mef" They replied^ that they acted with the 
knowledge and under the direct orders of Government. 

Upon inquiry, this was found to be a fact. 

The newspaper that published a statement of the facta 
was destroyed and its office burned. The type of a religious 
journal, the "Southern Churchman," was burned, and the 
enormities that ensued exceeded those perpetrated upon 
peaceable Christian communities by the Mohammedans. 

They drove the minister from his home, and after reveng- 
ing himself by ministering to tlie soldiers who had oppressed 
him, upon the field of battle, in the prisons, etc., binding up 
their wounds, and administering to them the consolations of 
religion in the hour of death, and after having the satisfac- 
tion of holding back the soldiers of the Confederate States 
from interrupting another minister, when praying for Presi- 
dent Lincoln, he awaits the o-rand conclusion of these thino-s. 
It is said that a stranger, who was present on the occasion of 
this sacrilege, observed, "if the men engaged in this affair do 
not all meet with some signal judgment of the Almighty^ I shcdl 
begin to question the truth of religion ! " 

Rev. Mr. Stewart is now located at Spotswood, New Jer- 
sey, is a faithful servant in the cause of Christ, and is 
the author of "Commentaries on Eevelation," and other 
religious works. 



MRS. MARY B. MORRIS. 

niHE subject of this narrative, Mrs. Mary B. Morris, suf- 
-L fered, perhaps, as great indignities, and was subjected to 
as much cruel and barbarous treatment as any other person 
incarcerated in the Bastiles of the country during the war. 
This hidy, whose noble nature is overflowing with the milk 
of human kindness, was born in Kentucky, and reared be- 
neath a Southern sky. Having removed to Chicago, some 
ten or twelve years before the breaking out of the war, with 
her husband, Hon. B. S. Morris, who was a staunch sup- 
porter and able leader of the Whig party in the State ot" 
Illinois, and who looked upon secession as being wholly 
wrong, it was natural that she should entertain the same 
views. But it was equally natural that, when the war 
actually commenced, and the tread of hostile armies was 
pressing the soil that gave her birth, her sympathies should 
be enlisted in behalf of those who were near and dear to 
her by the ties of consanguinity and friendship — that her 
praj'ers should go up to the God of the Universe, supplicat- 
ing Him to protect and defend them. That her sympathies 
were thus enlisted, that her prayers were of this character, 
was but natural,* no one will deny. 

The war progressed, fearful and bloody battles wore fought, 
and, as one of the common results of the war, prisoners were 
captured. And as, at the commencement, there was no cartel 
for the exchange of prisoners between the lN"orth and South, 
the prisoners on each side were kept in confinement, at dif- 
ferent points where prisons were located, for their safe keep- 
ing. One of these prisons was located at Chicago, and 
known as Camp Douglas. 

It was here that Mrs. Morris commenced the miuistrationa 
7 97 



98 AMEEICANBASTILE. 

of kindness and love toward those unfortunate men who 
had been captured in battling for the lost cause. Many of 
these men arrived at the prison in the most destitute condi- 
tion, some sick, some wounded, all nearly naked, the blood 
marking the tracks of their shoeless feet. Their suffering 
condition drew forth the sympathies of women born in the 
North, and it is but natural that those who had friends and 
relatives among them should endeavor to relieve their wants, 
and engage in the merciful mission of providing for them 
clothing, to protect them from the chilling winter winds, 
and in furnishing medicines and proper food for the sick and 
wounded in a strange land. 

Seeing her friends and relatives thus circumstanced, the 
generous heart of Mrs. Morris was roused to action, and she 
immediately set about devising plans whereby slie could at 
onc^ ameliorate their sad condition. She applied to the com- 
mandant of the prison for permission to visit the hospitals, 
and, after numerous entreaties and appeals, she obtained it. 
From morn till eve did she sit by the bedside of the sick and 
dying, supplying the place of mothers far away. She took 
with her nice little dainties, that she knew so well were 
needed in sickness. Bed-clothing she furnished in large 
quantities, to make them comfortable. But not only did she 
administer to the wants of the sick : she also took upon 
herself the duty of furnishing them well with clothing, of 
which all were scantily supplied ; and so assiduously did she 
apply herself to the work, that in a short time she saw all 
of those poor fellows warmly clad. 

The war went on, the strife grew deadlier, the breach 
wider, battles were more frequent and fierce, the worst pas- 
sions of men were stirred up, and as all things grew worse, 
so tlie treatment of prisoners of war. Camp Douglas had a 
change of commandants — one that was not at all advan- 
tageous to the prisoners. An ofiicer was placed in command 
v/ho rejoiced over the death of any and all jRebels, and did 
everything that he could to render the prisoners under his 



M R S. M A R Y B. M O R R I S. 99 

control more miserable tlian tliey were before. One of his 
acts was to prohibit Mrs. Morris from visiting the camp. 

This was the severest blow that he could have inflicted 
upon the unfortunate prisoners, and their suii'erings were 
greatly increased. IStill she did all that she. could, notwith- 
standing she was thus debarred from visiting the prison. 
She sent in food and clothing, but alas ! the most of it was 
appropriated by the oflicers in charge. This privilege of 
sending in food and clothing was, however, soon denied her, 
and hence the charitable oflices and humane labors which 
this lady had so arduously and constantly performed were 
brought to an end. 

She had done all that she could, or was allowed to do, in 
this humane work. AVhat she did, was done with the full 
knowledge and consent of those in command of the prison, 
wdth the exception, that on a few occasions, she furnished 
money to escaped prisoners to enable them to get to Canada. 
These were mere boys, who, upon their arrival in Canada, 
were placed at school, and there kept until the close of the 
war. So that, instead of working against the Government, 
she actually did it a service. 

We give this brief statement of facts in order to show the 
malignity of the Government in the arrest and imprison- 
ment of this estimable lady. 

In JSTovember, 1864, the vindictiveness of the party in 
power was at its highest pitch, and all who dared to differ 
from it became the recipients of a relentless persecution. The 
Hon. B. S. Morris was one of this class, although obeying 
the laws of his country, and doing nothing but what the 
Constitution guaranteed him the right to do. At midnight 
his house was surrounded by armed soldiers. He was ordered 
to open his doors, when fifty soldiers, wearing the uniform 
of the United States, marched in, seized and dragged him 
off to prison. This was the commencement of the cruel treat- 
ment that was so mercilessly heaped upon Mrs. Morris. After 
they had imprisoned her husband, slie requested that she 
might be allowed to see him. The answer from his brutal 



100 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

jailer was tliat " slie would not see him again ; that he would 
he hanged, and that speedily;" thus adding insult to injury, 
increasing the fears of a woman already racked with the 
pain of uncertainty as to her hushand's fate. 

But she was permitted to see him sooner than she expected, 
and under circumstances that she little dreamed of. In 
about four weeks after his arrest and imprisonment, early in 
the morning, she was inforaied by a servant that the house 
was again surrounded 1)y armed soldiers. The cause of their 
being there she could not surmise — certainly the United 
States Government was not going to degrade itself by arrest- 
ing a woman. Yes, this was the mission of its seventy-five 
soldiers, on that November morning. The house was opened, 
and the healthy and robust Captain of the Invalid Corps, 
(into which he had got in order to keep at a safe distance 
from Eebel bullets,) after having placed some fifty of hit 
men around the house to see that the object of his pursuit 
did not escape, marched boldly at the head of his remaining 
twenty-five men into the house, called for Mrs. Morris, and 
informed her that she was his prisoner. He then ordered 
her to produce all of her letters, that he might examine them. 
This she was compelled to do. After he had examined them, 
and finding that no treason was contained in them, he con- 
cludeci that the treasonable documents were kept back, and 
therenpon instituted a search himself, lie ransacked every 
drawer and closet in the house, and carried oft* more than a 
bushel of letters, but found nothing objectionable. He then 
ordered her to go with him to prison. It being early in the 
morning, and having only thrown on her wrapper, she re- 
spectfully asked the privilege of putting on some more suit- 
able clothing. She was informed tliat she would not be 
allowed to go out of his sight for one minute. She told him 
that she could not go out apparelled as she was, and must 
put on more comfortable clothing, and that he could go into 
her room and examine everything in it again, if he was not 
satisfied with his first search, and convince himself that there 
was nothing there that she wished to destroy, or that he might 



MRS. MARY B. MORRIS. 101 

not see. But the valiant Captain was not inclined to allow 
the first prisoner he had captured any possible chance of 
escape, and consequently would not allow her to go alone. 
She was compelled to have him in her room while she changed 
her clothing, a servant-girl standing in front of her to protect 
her, as much as possible, from his sight. 

She was taken to Camp Douglas and delivered into the 
hands of Captain Sherley, who was a subordinate of Colonel 
Sweet, the commandant. The Colonel ordered Captain Sher- 
ley to confine her in what was known as the White-Oak 
Dungeon. This was a dark, damp, filthy place, swarming 
with vertnin. But the Captain, being a man in whose breast 
the instincts of manly honor were not quite dead, refused em- 
phatically to obey the order. The Colonel informed him 
that if his order was not obeyed, he would place him 
under arrest. To which the Captain retorted that he would 
let it be known that the cause of his arrest was for his refusal 
to obey a brutal order. This caused him to pause and con- 
sider, and he finally concluded to allow the Captain to take 
her and her husband into his own charge, and confine them 
where he saw fit. He very generously took them to his own 
quarters, and had a room fitted up for them, which was in- 
side of the camp enclosure, and made them as comfortable 
as he could under the circumstances. She remained here for 
about two Aveeks, not knowing why she was arrested and im- 
prisoned, or what charges they had against her. She was 
then ordered to Cincinnati for trial, when she was informed 
that she had been arrested upon tlie charge of conspiring 
to effect the release of the prisoners in Camp Douglas, and 
for which she would very likely be hanged ; and if she was 
not, she ought to be. She was taken to Cincinnati under a 
strong guard. Before she started, her numerous friends 
wished to see her, and begged the Colonel for perndssion to 
do so, but he was deaf to all their entreaties. 

She arrived iii Cincinnati in the dead of winter, was con- 
veyed to McLean Barracks in company with her husband, 
and put into a miserable, gloomy, and filthy room, the furni- 



102 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

ture of which consisted of a wooden bench and a bunk, made 
of rough, unplaned boards. The grate in the fire-place was 
small and broken, and the fuel furnished not sufficient to 
make a fire. 

She begged for permission to send out and purchase at 
least a bed and bedding, if they would allow her nothing 
more. But no attention was given either to her request or 
condition. Imagine her horrible situation — in dead of winter, 
confined in a cold and cheerless room, where daylight could 
scarcely be seen through the cracks of its boarded-up win- 
dows — little or no fire by which to warm her benumbed 
limbs — nothing to be seen but the armed sentinel, as he 
walked to and fro upon the corridor in front of the open 
door — nothing to be heard, save the wind as it moaned 
without or w^histled through the apertures of the broken 
windows. Night came on — she was almost worn out by the 
fatigue of her journey, harassed in mind and body, sick and 
suffering from the inhuman treatment she was subjected to 
and compelled to endure : how badly she needed rest and re- 
pose ! But how was she to sleep upon those hard, rough 
boards, through that cold winter night, with no covering but 
the smoked and blackened ceiling of the filthy room ! She 
sat upon the wooden bench over the smouldering embers in 
the broken grate until far into the night, when nature at 
last overcame her, and she stretched her wearied and almost 
exha^^sted form upon the hard and uninviting boards, pray- 
ing God to protect and preserve her through the rest of the 
night, hoping 'that the morning would bring relief, and 
thinking that the authorities in whose hands she was did 
not know of her cruel treatment, and that when they ascer- 
tained the facts, they would certainly remove her to better 
and more comfortable quarters. But she was doomed to dis- 
appointment. The authorities knew full well where she was, 
and how she was being treated, had indeed ordered it, just 
as it was, and, instead of bettering her condition, they would 
have made it worse, if possible. 

The morning of the second day of her imprisonment ia 



MKS. MAEY B. MORRIS. 103 

this wretched place found her suffering severely from cold 
and hunger, for she had eaten nothing for thirty-six, hours. 
Those in charge of the prison had furnished nothing but a 
tin cup half tilled with a vile concoction, which resembled 
very dirty dish-water, but which they termed soup. This 
was all that was furnished, and neither slie nor any other 
human being could have eaten it. It looked as if death was 
to be meted out to her by the slow and painful process of 
starvation. 

The Government officials knew the charges the}' had made 
against her were groundless, without a particle of proof to 
sustain them, as the sequel proved. But they thought as the 
charges could not be sustained, they would by their brutal and 
inhuman treatment cause her death at all events. And tliey 
came very near accomplishing their hellish purpose. Her 
treatment during the succeeding three days was but a repe- 
tition of the cruelty of the first. On the fifth day, Mrs. 
Sarah Peter, a friend of Mrs. Morris, through the influence 
of her son, j\Ir. Peter, who was a warm supporter of the Ad- 
ministration, succeeded in obtaining permission to send to 
the prisoner a few eatables. And General Willich, who, 
although an infidel, set an example worthy to have been imi- 
tated by those who had immediate control of the prison, and 
who claimed to be Christian men, after seeing the wretched 
and horrible condition in which she was placed, swore, by 
that place that we all hope to avoid, that she should be al- 
lowed, at least, to buy the necessaries of life. But this small 
relief was not afforded until after she had been there some 
five or six days. She had induced a soldier to sell her an old 
wornout straw bedtick, to cover the boards on which she 
had been sleeping until her limbs and body pained and ached. 
The Government about this time magnanimously furnished 
her with a coarse army-blanket. Thus did she live for more 
than two months — December, January, and part of Febru- 
ary — in this wretched, cold, and filthy room, not being al- 
lowed for one minute to go out of it. 

This horrible treatment and severe confinement beo:an to 



104 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

tell upon lier health. Her constitution was breaking down 
beneath it. At last a physician had to be consulted. He 
at once went before a justice of the peace, and made an affi- 
davit that, unless she was allowed to take some exercise, and 
lier treatment otherwise materially improved, she could not 
possibly live six weeks longer. Upon this statement made 
under oath, her relentless and cruel persecutors permitted her 
to walk out on the corridor fronting her room one hour and 
a half daily. But this slight improvement of her condition 
was not made until it was almost too late to benefit her, 
for soon after disease seized her, and she was compelled to 
keep her bed. Her only nurse or attendant was her hus- 
band, and when he was absent, in attendance upon his trial, 
which occupied some six hours a day, a Mr. Patton, who was 
a prisoner in the barracks, was placed in the room. 

On this trial, all the evidence they had against Mrs. Morris 
was brought out. The one solitary witness against her was 
.John T. Shanks, one of the meanest and most despicable 
villains that ever the gallows has been cheated of — a liar, a 
thief, and a forger, as was known to Government officials, 
and fully proven on the trial. AVhen the war broke out this 
Shanks was undergoing a sentence of imprisonment, in the 
Texas penitentiary, for forger3\ A mistaken clemency 
granted him a pardon, that he might join the Southern army. 
Captured with General Morgan's forces, in his famous raid 
north of the Ohio, Shanks was imprisoned with the privates 
(^f Morgan's command, at Camp Douglas. Here he secretly 
liired himself, as a spy and informer, to the military author- 
ities. Xot satisfied with acting the spy in the camp, he 
volunteered to play the rtle of an escaped prisoner, in order 
to entrap Mrs. ]Morri8, by appealing to her sympathies. 
With inconceivable meanness and hypocrisy, he went to her 
liouse, and representing himself as an escaped prisoner in 
destitute circumstances, induced her to furnish him some 
money, promising, on his honor, it should never be spoken 
of to her injury. Eeturning to the camp, he was put forth 



MES. MAEY B. MORKIS. 105 

by the military conspirators as lier accuser, and on his infor- 
mation she was arrested. 

Such was the instrument and such the trickery employed 
by the Government officials, to manufacture a charge of 
treason against a lady whose only crime was that she had a 
generous and feeling heart, which could not resist the appeals 
of misfortune. It was infamous to set such a wretch to 
awaken her sympathy, by lying tales of destitution and dis- 
tress, only to make her kindness of heart an excuse for cast- 
ing her into prison, and subjecting her to unheard-of indig- 
nities and sufferings. The officials who descended to such 
base artifices disgraced the Government they represented. 
Their conduct only illustrated the unprincipled malignity 
which then animated its councils. This persecution of an 
innocent lady w^ill remain a foul blot on the Administration 
which countenanced it. 

After this vile informer and perjured wretch had given 
his testimony against Mrs. JMorris before the military com- 
mission, on the trial of Judge Morris and others, and its 
falsity and incompetency were fully exposed, the Government 
had no longer any excuse for continuing her imprisonment. 
As the condition of her release, she made a confession that 
she had been guilty of the high crimes and misdemeanors of 
having given, on several occasions, food, clothing, and money, 
to escaped prisoners, to enable them to get to Canada. This 
confession was eagerly sought by Mrs. Morris's persecutors, as 
the flimsy excuse by which they hoped to justify to the pub- 
lic their own flagrant violations of the Constitution, in incar- 
cerating a lady in one of their horrible Bastiles, w^ithout due 
process of law, and inflicting upon her a severe and protracted 
punishment, w^ithout trial by any tribunal whatever. To 
obtain it, they promised to permit her to remain in Cincin- 
nati with her husband, daring his trial — a promise which 
they intended to violate when they made it. 

A valorous Adjutant of the Home Guard sent this confes- 
sion to headquarters, accompanied by a missive of his own, 
full of bitter and vindictive denunciation, and containing a 



106 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

recommendation that she be summarily banished from the 
country. But his superiors, not seeing the matter in this 
lio;ht, or perhaps fearing to proceed farther in this merciless 
and illegal persecution of a lady of the highest respectability, 
mitigated the sentence recommended by the brave and mag- 
nanimous Adjutant, by banishing her, during the war, to the 
residence of her father, in the loyal State of Kentucky. 

Thus was closed this disgraceful chapter in the history of 
the persecution of American citizens by a Government which 
boasted that it was the best the world ever saw, and yet was 
guilty of acts of oppression and perfidy to its own citizens, 
which would disgrace a Russian autocrat or a Turkish despot. 



HIRAM WEKTWOETH. 

THE following letter is from a victim of despotism. As 
it speaks for itself, we make no comments. The letter 
is addressed to Hon. M. Y. Jolmson, of Galena, 111., a fel- 
low-prisoner in Fort Delaware, formerly an inmate of Fort 
Lafayette : 

" Hon. M. Y. Johnson : 

"Dear Sir: Yours of the 16th arrived on the 17th, in company 
with a note from Senator Eiee, which I will copy verbatim, for 
you to dispose of as you may think proper. Such a document 
ought not to be kept in the dark. Here it is: 

'"Washington, Dec. 14, 18G2. 
" ' Sir: Yours of the 11th inst. is received — you were suspected 
of disloyalty — arrested — offered your freedom if you would take 
the oath of allegiance — this you refused — tlius confirming the 
suspicions of your disloyalty — as it appears optional with your- 
self whether you remain in prison longer or not — I cannot see 
the necessity of giving mj'self any trouble upon the occasion — 
you say you ask no favors — your independence may keep you 
company until you are satisfied that you cannot receive all the 
blessings and protection of a free country, while refusing to sup- 
port her institutions. 

" ' Eespectfully, yours, 

'"Henry M. Eice.' 

"So much from Mr. Eice — the Honorable IIqwyj M. Eice — 
the sqvaw-compelling Eice, of Minnesota. It's all very fine, Mr. 
Eice, but what has become of my constitutional rights? Did 
my being 'suspected of disloyalty ' annihilate them? Did an 
arbitrary arrest deprive me of my birthright? Having been ar- 
rested and imprisoned on suspicion of disloyalty, have I not 
clearly the right to demand either an unconditional release, or 
such a trial as the Constitution provides for those accused of that 

107 



108 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

crime? 'Tis a fiue thing to offer a man his freedom, if he will 
swear allegiance to a tyi'ant who is murdering him piecemeal, 
without the shadow of a cause. 'Tis an extravagant eulogy on 
the recent conduct of his Dakota relatives in Minnesota — a des- 
perate attempt to make savage treachery virtuous hy compari- 
son — for this Indian fur-trader (whose pojiularity with the red- 
skins alone elevated him to Congress) to tell a loyal, native-born 
citizen (who has been in close confinement nearly seven months, 
rather than plead guilty to a false charge which would make his 
name infamous forever) that his independence may keep him 
company until he is satisfied that he cannot receive all the bless- 
ings and protection of a free country^ while refusing to support 
her ' institutions.' My independence, which this descendant of 
Esau attempts to ridicule, was purchased with the blood of a 
noble ancestry, and will be scrupulously maintained at all hazards. 
He could not have consigned it to better company or safer 
keeping. I am already satisfied that the blessings and protection 
of a country whose institutions come and go at the bidding of 
one man, are not xcorth receiving; but I am receiving them, satis- 
faction, health, and Esau's opinion to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing; and if 'refusing to support her institutions' is a proof of 
disloyalty, refusing to support her Constitution becomes an evi- 
dence of loyalty, for many of the former are flagrant viola- 
tions of the latter; and yet his blockheaded stupidity informs 
me that my refusing to take the oath of allegiance confirmed the 
suspicions of m}^ disloyalty. Well, supposing it did ? I have 
challenged suspicions repeatedly, and received no answer. Did 
my refusal to plead guilty preclude me the right of a trial ? His 
extreme dulness accuses me oi asking no favors; but does it there- 
fore follow that I shall receive no justice? His unblushing 
treachery says, in other words, that 1 may remain here until I 
am satisfied with purchasing my inalienable rights at Abolition 
prices — which means forever. 

"During the last Presidential canvass, I was three times 
arrested for expressing Union sentiments in a Southern State. 
At the commencement of the war, I declined the ofi'er of a com- 
mission in the Confederate army, and enlisted as a private in the 
first regiment of Minnesota volunteers. After serving nearly 
five months in that capacity, I was discharged for ' military in- 
ability,' (wearing long hair,) my j)rotest to the contrary notwith- 



HIRAM WENTWORTH. 109 

standing. I subsequently served as an independent soldier more 
than a month, gratuitously, in the same regiment; several weeks 
after which, I was 'suspected of disloyalty' — and by whom? 
"Why, by a drunken lieutenant, who had never seen me before in 
his life; but who said, nevertheless, that he believed me to be 
'a damned rebel spy, and that if hS could have his way, he would 
hang me on the spot with a piece of telegraph wire.' Having, 
however, no authority to hang me, he graciously contented him- 
self Avith arresting me and taking me to Martinsburg, where he 
tried to lionize himself by reporting that he had caj^tured Colo- 
nel Ashby, which created so much excitement, that the guard 
found it quite difficult to prevent my being taken from them 
before they could get me to the Provost-Marshal's office; and the 
Marshal found it necessary to double the guard, and send also an 
advance guard to clear the way to the jail, where, he ordered me 
to be kcj)t for my own safety till the fiilse report could be satis- 
factorily contradicted, and the mob dispei'sed, which numbered 
not less than two thousand men. Thus the scene closed at 
about 9 o'clock p.m. of the 6th of June last. About twenty-four 
hours later, the Marshal (Major "Walker, of the Tenth Maine 
regiment,) ordered my release, provided I would leave town im- 
mediately. I countermanded his order, by informing him that I 
did not now propose to 'leave town,' till I could have daylight 
to do it by, and my own time to do it in. The next (Sunday) 
morning I was tinconditionally released ; but, owing to the reli- 
gious habits of Virginia cars, I did not 'leave town ' until Mon- 
day, when I returned to Harper's Ferry, where I had previously 
engaged myself as brakesman on the Baltimore and Ohio Kail- 
road ; and there, about 2 p.m. of the same da}', I was again 
arrested — whether on 'suspicion of disloyalty,' or on the sup- 
position that I had neither mone}', friends, nor constitutional 
rights, I cannot tell: all I can say is, I was kept there two 
days, in a filthy guard-house, without being allowed to send a 
telegram, or even a letter, to "Washington, and was then sent to 
Baltimore, without the privilege of going or sending to my 
boarding-house, in Harper's Ferry, for a carpet-sack full of cloth- 
ing, before starting. After several days treatment in the Balti- 
more city jail, the overseer of that extensive liberty-mill came 
to my cell, and asked me if T was willing to take the oath of 
allegiance; to which I replied, ' I am 7iow, as I have ever been, 



110 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

a loyal citizen of the United States; and whenever anything dis- 
loyal to the Constitution has been proved against me, I shall be 
ready to renew my allegiance.' The operator then said, ' The 
question is, will you take the oath of allegiance? I want a 
monosyllable for an answer — yes or no.' As I had one of the 
W'Ords he mentioned at my tongue's end, of course, I instantly 
relieved the patriotic agony of the suffering miller, by giving 
him his inevitable toll. He seemed to accept it as a great favor, 
and ground me some seven weeks without any extra charge. 
The operation was performed in a small apartment, vulgarly 
called a cell, where I fared sumptuously, on rye bread and bean 
soup, every day. I was then favored with a gratuitous pleasure- 
trip to Fortress Monroe, and afterward lodged in another citizen- 
factory, which was also conducted on the oath principle by Gen- 
eral Morris, who also wanted a ' monosyllable.' As the one I 
experimented with in the city succeeded so well, I supposed it 
would wnn in Fort McHenry; but Gleneral Morris is a crabbed old 
cuss ; I don't think anything would suit him ; he only ground me 
two weeks in a stable hay-loft — on hard bread and salt horse, at 
that. I was glad to get 'shut' of him, and regard my second 
attempt with the talismanic 'no' as a 'great Union victory,' 
after all. It wins in Fort Delaware every time. I repeated it, 
the day I received the letter, with the utmost assurance, as I 
now consider myself permanently located. I must confess 'I 
cannot see the necessity' of my 'supporting her institutions,' as 
long as 'her institutions' insist on supporting me; nor is it 'op- 
tional with myself whether I remain in prison longer or not,' 
while honor is demanded of me as the price of liberty. 

"Mr. Jolinson, one favor — a message to bear': 
Tell Abe Lincoln I've no allegiance to spare ; 
That the freedom he seeks for the African slave, 
Will not pay for the shackles and blood of the brave ; 
That I ask for no favor — would utter no groan, 
Though my life for political sins should atone : 
But that justice must have me, if guilty of crime, 
Or I will have justice, if robbed of my time. 
Oh, Democracy! once the proud boast of our land, 
Be thou treason or not, here 's my heart and my hand ; 
I am proud of the chains that I wear for thy sake, 
But, oh! why dost thou slumber? Awaken! awake! 

" Yours, truly, HIEAM V7E:N^TW01iTH. 

"FoET Delaware, Dec. 20, 1862." 



HOX. FEAISrCIS D. FLANDERS, AND JUDGE JOSEPH 
R. FLANDERS. 

HON. FRANCIS D. FLANDERS, and Judge Joseph R. 
Flanders, brothers, reside at Malone, Franklin County, 
New York. 

They were arrested about seven o'clock, on the morning 
of Tuesday, the 22d day of October, 1861, by four Deputy 
Marshals, coming in upon them while they were at break- 
fast with their families. They were told by the otficers that 
their instructions were to disregard an}^ writ of habeas cor- 
pus which might be issued in their behalf, and arrest any 
person attempting to take them from their custody, under 
any process or authority whatever. 

The following is a copy of the order under which the 
Deputy Marshal acted : 

"Department of State, 

Washington, Oct. 11, 1861. 

" Edward" I. Chase, Esq., United States Marshal of the Northern 

District of New York, Lockport : 

"Sir; Please confer with the United States District Attorney 

for the Northern District of New York, and arrest Francis D. 

Flanders, and Joseph E. Flanders, and convey them to Fort 

Lafayette. 

" Very truly yours, 

" Wm. H. Seward." 

There was a regiment of volunteers in camp at Ogdensburg, 
about sixty miles from the place of their arrest, the two 
places being connected by railroad. The Deputy Marshal 
said they had made arrangements for any requisite number 
of these soldiers being brought down upon them in case of 
any resistance. The chief otiicer who made the arrest told 
them that Judge Hall, the United States District Judge for 

111 



112 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

I 

the Xorthern District of ISTew York, was at Albany when 
thej left, and that if he was still there, they should be taken 
before him and have an examination. 

But they did not allow them to stop at Albany, and evi- 
dently did not intend to do so when they gave thig assui"ance. 
They were taken to the cars at ten o'clock, and travelled 
night and day, until they reached Fort Lafayette, in the 
afternoon of the next day. They were delivered by the 
Deputy Marshal to Colonel Burke, at Fort Hamilton, and 
by him sent over to, and placed in the custody of a ruffianly 
civilian lieutenant, of the name of Wood. He took from 
them all their money, giving a written acknowledgment for 
it. They were then placed in a large battery-room of the 
Fort, in which were five or six guns upon carriages. This 
room was then tenanted by forty or tifty prisoners, of a most 
promiscuous sort, and of every variety of character. They 
had no tables, chairs, washstands, or bowls, and all the 
prisoners had to go out in the square of the Fort to wash, 
the weather being cold and frosty. The beds furnished them 
at Fort Lafayette were comfortable. All that they had to 
eat was cooked by a soldier, and served to them in the soldiers' 
mess-room on a common table. Their meals immediately 
succeeded those of the soldiers, and consisted, for breakfast, 
of a slice of half-boiled fat pork, a slice of very poor stale 
bread, and a tin-cup of black, bitter liquid, called coifee, with- 
out milk, and sweetened with strong and unpleasant sugar 
or molasses. At dinner they had the same kind of bread, 
some thin beef-soup, and boiled beef or pork. For supper, 
the same as breakfast. 

A day or two before they left for Fort Warren they were 
furnished with tables, chairs and pails. They remained in 
Fort Lafayette one week, and were then convej'cd, on the 
steamer State of Maine, together with about a thousand 
others, prisoners of war, political prisoners, and a guard, to 
Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor. They were on board the 
IState of Maine some forty hours, including two nights, and 
all felt that, overloaded as it was, should a storm arise, 



THE BKOTHEKS FLANDERS. 113 

nothing could save them from destruction. The few state- 
rooms were occupied hy those fortunate enough to get them ; 
all the rest slept on chairs, round stools, settees, and on the 
, floor of the deck. They had nothing to eat but hard bis- 
cuit and raw meat, with cotfee once or twice, without milk, 
brought around iu horse-buckets, and dipped out in tin cups. 

When they entered Fort Warren, on the morning of the 
1st l!Tovember, no provision had been made for them, and 
the first that they got to eat was late in the afternoon, when 
a barrel of hard biscuit, and a raw ham set upon the head 
of a barrel, were placed on the parade-ground of the fort, 
and from these the prisoners made their only meal that day. 
Things were but little, if any better, the next day. After that 
the prisoners were allowed soldiers' rations, but no conve- 
niences for cooking, without going into a large room where 
there were forty or more prisoners all struggling for the use 
of one common stove. 

When they arrived at Fort Warren, they had nothing to 
sleep on but a stone or brick floor, or some wooden slats like 
a gridiron, without beds or blankets. After a week or more 
they were furnished with a straw tick and a shoddy blanket, 
and some time afterward, with a moss mattress and pillow 
and some additional blankets, and an iron bedstead. 

After they had been in the Fort some weeks, Seth E. Haw- 
ley, of ISTew York, as agent of Mr. Seward, came to the Fort 
and offered to investigate the cases of all prisoners of state, 
who would first take the oath prescribed by the Lincoln 
Government, called the oath of allegiance. 

The prisoners drew up and caused to be handed to him 
their reasons for refusing the Lincoln oath, and a protest 
against it, of which the following is a copy : 

" The undersigned prisoners confined in Fort Warren, Boston 
Harbor, having been offered a discharge upon the condition of 
our taking the oath presci'ibed for certain officers of the United 
States, by a law passed at the late extra session of Congress, 
decline to take said oath, upon the following grounds : — We 



114 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

have been guilty of no offence against the laws of our country, 
but bave simply exercised our constitutional rights as free 
citizens in the open and manly expression of our opinions upon 
public affairs. We have been placed here without legal charges, 
or indeed any charges whatsoever being made against us, and 
upon no legal process, but upon an arbitrary and illegal order of 
the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of the United States. Every 
moment of our detention here is a denial of our most sacred 
rights. We are entitled to, and hereby demand an unconditional 
discharge; and, while we would cheerfully take the oath pre- 
scribed by the Constitution of the United States, because we are, 
always have been, and always intend to be loyal to that instru- 
ment, (though, at the same time, protesting against the right of 
the Government to impose even such an oath on us as the con- 
dition of our discharge,) we cannot consent to take the oath now 
required of us, because we hold no office of any kind under the 
Government of the United States, and it is an oath unknown to, 
and unauthorized by the Constitution, and commits us to the 
support of the Government, though it may be acting in direct 
conflict with the Constitution, and deprives us of the right of 
freely discussing, and by peaceful and constitutional methods 
opposing its measures — a right sacred to freedom, and which no 
American citizen should voluntarily surrender. That such is the 
interpretation put upon this oath, and such its intended. effect, 
is plainly demonstrated by the fact that it is dictated to us as a 
condition of our discharge from an imprisonment inflicted upon 
us for no other cause than that we had exercised the above 
specified constitutional rights. 

"F. D. FLANDERS. 

"J. E. FLANDERS." 

Nothing furtlier was heard of this. 

A few weeks afterward the wives of the prisoners, accom 
panied by their fathers, and carrying a letter from Hon. E. D. 
Morgan, Governor of New York, to the President, urging a 
liearing of their cases, proceeded to AVasliington, and were, 
by the kind offices of Hon. Erastus ('orning, immediately 
introdiu'CKl to Mr. Lincoln. They stated the object of their 
visit, when tlie President replied that these things belonged 



THE BEOTHEKS FLANDEKS. 115 

entirely to Mr. Seward's department ; he knew nothing about 
them ; had never heard of their cases before, and they must 
go to j\fr. Seward. 

They accordingly went to tlie office of the Secretary of State, 
where they were received very reluctantly, and only through 
Mr. Coming's influence. Scarcely had they become seated 
when the Hon. Secretary turned to one of the ladies, and in a 
very loud and excited tone of voice, said : " Well ! what pro- 
positions have you got to make ? " She replied : " We did 
not come to make propositions, but to demand a trial for 
our husbands, or their unconditional release." "No!" was 
the short answer, in a still higher key. Astonished more by 
his manner than his answer, a pause ensued, when he said : 
"Have you anything more to say?" Mrs. F. D. Flanders 
said : " Our husbands object to taking the Lincoln oath, but 
are willing to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution." 
He replied : "Any loyal man will take that oath ; your hus- 
bands are traitors ; I have put them in there, and they shall^ 
stay there." She answered: " They are not traitors." He 
said : " They are traitors ; you say they are not traitors, and 
I say they are traitors ; now what are you going to do about 
it?'' She then said: " Governor Morgan wrote a letter to 
the President, calling for a trial for them as citizens of his 
State." He replied : " I don't care if all the governors in the 
world should ask it, they shan't come out till they take that 
oath." One of the ladies then asked: " AVon't you tell us 
what they have done ? " "I make no charges ; I won't argue 
with you ; they shall take that oath ; " was the reply, in the 
most excited manner. He then added : " If you haven't any- 
thing more to say, I have done with you ; I have nothing 
more to say to you." Mrs. J. R. Flanders, whose father is a 
Kepublican, then asked: "Won't you hear my father ? He 
supports your Government, and is a Republican." " The 
more shame to him that he has not brought up his daughter 
and her husband better," was the dignified and courteous 
answer of the Hon. Secretary of State. Dr. Bates, the father 
of Mrs. F. I). Flanders, then said : " The gentlemen have 



116 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

been in prison almost four montlis ; haven't you punished 
them enough to let them have a trial ? " "I have no trial to 
give; I leave that to my successor;" was the reply. Mr. 
Raymond (the Republican) then said : " I am sorry to hear 
such a remark from you as you made to my daughter a mo- 
ment ago." "/am not sorry. I repeat it. You ought to be 
ashamed, not to have brought your daughter up better," said 
this model of suavity, and thus the interview ended. 

On the 14th day of February, 1862, Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, 
who had succeeded General Cameron, issued an order, by direc- 
tion of the President, taking the political prisoners, as prisoners 
of state, out of the hands of Seward, and placing them under 
the control of the head of the War Department, and stating 
that all who were not spies of the enemy, or of such charac- 
ter that their liberation would be dangerous to the public 
safety, would be liberated upon their signing a parole not to 
give aid and comfort to the enemy, of which the following is 

a copy : 

" Port Warren, 
Boston Harbor, Feb. 22, 1862. 
" 1, (here follows the name,) a prisoner, do pledge my word of 
honor, that I will render no aid or comfort to the enemies in 
hostility to the Government of the United States. 

{Signaturey^ 

They signed this parole on the 22d of February, and on 
the next day, the 23d, they were landed at Boston, and 
Government care for them ceased. 

On the twelfth day after the arrest of these gentlemen, 
two of the marshals concerned in their seizure returned to 
Malone, and, takiiig with them the sheriff of the county and 
several constables to jirotect them against helpless women 
and children^ thoroughly searched their houses and offices, 
took from them all the private letters and papers, the accu- 
mulation of years, many of them valuable, and sent them 
to the Secretary of State ; and up to this time they have not 
been able to recover them. 



ARCHIBALD McGREGOR. 

AECIIIBALD McGEEGOR was born in Hamilton, Scot- 
laud, in December, 1819. His father, John McGregor, 
was educated at Glasgow University, was a teacher in Scot- 
land, and, till near his death, was a successful teacher of an 
academy at Wadsworth, Ohio, where Archibald received his 
education. It was love of liberty, and opposition to the Brit- 
ish system of government, that induced the father to emigrate 
with his family to America, in 1828. In these principles, he 
carefully educated his family ; and, like his father, the subject 
of this sketch has ever been a zealous and influential Democrat. 
In 1848, Mr. Archibald McGregor was solicited by the leading 
Democrats of Canton, where he was teaching, to take charge 
of the "Stark County Democrat." He accepted the offer, 
and still continues the business, assisted by his son. Mr. 
McGregor has filled the positions of County School Examiner, 
County Auditor, member of the Canton Board of Education, 
and School Examiner for the Canton Union School. As an 
editor, he has always published a vigorous, fearless, and 
decidedly Democratic paper — devotion to principle trans- 
cending all personal considerations. 

In 1854-55, his paper dealt heavy blows against Know- 
Nothingism ; and his speeches over the county, exposing that 
infamous organization, brought down upon him the whole 
vengeance of the party. Ever avoiding personal wrangling, 
he, as a public man, has been accustomed to great plainness 
of speech. As will be seen, Mr. McGregor was an object of 
especial Radical attention during the late war. His invariable 
gentlemanly deportment, and high character as a citizen, 
always commanded the respect of the Conservative portion of 
his political opponents, even in the time of their wildest fury. 

117 



118 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

From tlae beginning of the late civil war, Mr. McGregor 
was greatly persecuted and maligned by the " trooly loil " 
denizens of his section. He has suffered imprisonment, loss 
of property, and received other attentions, tending to prove 
him an unswerving friend of constitutional liberty, and one 
not to be driven from the path of duty by the clamor or 
threats of his opj)onents. 

On the evening of the 17th of April, 1861, Mr. McGregor 
was seized by a mob of several hundred excited and infuri- 
ated men, at Massillon, Ohio, whither he had gone on busi- 
ness — their excuse being that his paper did not favor the 
war, which had then broken out. 

The mob were about to hurl him into the canal, when the 
Mayor — a Republican — came to his rescue, and succeeded 
in getting him into his office. The mob surrounded it, and 
yelled for a victim. After about an hour or so, a carriage 
was jorocured, and, aided by a body-guard, he succeeded in 
passing through the vindictive crowd, whose demoniacal 
shouts rent the air, and, having entered the vehicle, was 
rapidly driven to Canton, a distance of eight miles. 

Arriving there, and before going to his home, he called 
upon a Democratic friend, to inform him of the outrage at 
Massillon, and there learned that an excited crowd had also 
been ranging about Canton, in search of him as their chief 
object of vengeance. This mob had been in waiting at the 
railroad depot, expecting him to return home in the evening 
train, and, not finding him there, proceeded thence to his 
house, where they called for him by name. Mrs. McGregor 
stepped upon the portico, and demanded their business with 
her husband, and ordered them away. These were the first 
lucky escapes, but by no means the last ; for his paper, com- 
ing out every week, kept alive the animosity of the war 
party, and made him a constant object of their vindictive- 
ness. This they manifested in various ways — withdrawal 
of patronage — loss of subscribers — threats of personal in- 
jury, and destroying his office, which was done on the 22d 
of August. 



ARCHIBALD McGEEGOR. 119 

It is unnecessary to detail the numerous personal risks 
to wliich such a man as Mr. McGregor was subject. For a 
time he could not walk the street without hearing from be- 
hind him, frequently muttered, " Traitor." If he took the 
cars to travel, he was sure to be recognized by some sneak, 
who would endeavor to excite the ire of the passengers or 
"soldiers" — wliich latter generally comprised a large por- 
tion of the passengers — against him. This may serve to 
show the constant danger to which prominent" Democrats 
were exposed, during the first 3^ear of the war, and even 
afterward, from the fury of a mob, who, ceasing to be gov- 
erned by reason, were led on by their frenzied passions. 
Although Canton was usually a Democratic town, yet there, 
as elsewhere, the Abolition war furor was paramount. 

If a Democratic paper did not proclaim war with the zeal 
of a Moliammedan, and denounce all who opposed it with the 
opprobrious epithet of " traitors," and recommend them as 
fit subjects for " the rope and the halter," the editor himself 
was liable to receive these delicate attentions. 

The feverish state of the public mind was such, that in a 
few minutes a crowd of frenzied individuals could be got 
together ready for the conmiission of almost any manner of 
violence. Eopes were hung upon all the lamp-posts about 
the town, and " Death to traitors " was prominently posted 
up. Amid this wild fury and rage, Mr. McGregor continued 
to issue his paper, without swerving or cringing, yet with a 
degree of prudence of expression which gave his venomous 
political enemies no opportunity for wreaking vengeance upon 
him, although they frequently sent marked copies of his 
paper to the Departments whence issued the orders for arbi- 
trary arrests. 

On the night of August 22, 18G1, the newspaper and job 
ofilce of the " Stark County Democrat " was broken into by a 
squad of new recruits, mostly sons of prominent families of 
Canton. The leader in this nefarious work was Lieutenant 
Edward S. Meyer, son of an attorney at law in Canton. lie 
was aided by Jeff Eeynolds, son of Madison Ueyuolds, 0. I\ 



120 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

Browning, Jr., Thomas Patton, Jr., and several otliers, 
about twenty in all. The office was in the second story of 
the county buildings, on the first floor of which were the 
county offices. The building not being occupied, no alarm 
Avas given, and they went on with their work of destruction 
unmolested. Several Democrats saw the affair, but gave no 
a,]arm, fearful, probably, that serious consequences might 
ensue by arraying one portion of the community against the 
other. 

The marauders did their work eft'ectually, making a bon- 
fire in the street, and burning wood, type, stands, cases, and 
all that was comltustible. The destruction was complete, 
the old newspaper hand-press being the only article of any 
value that escaped. 

Mr. McGregor knew nothing of the destruction of his 
office till near breakfast-time the next morning. He had 
been in the habit^of guarding it till eleven or twelve o'clock, 
and at times having a guard remain over night. The estab- 
lishment had often before been threatened with destruction, 
but hopes were entertained that it would continue to escape. 

The news spread over the country like wildfire, and the 
excitement and indignation among Democrats were intense. 
Two days after, a meeting was called, and it was largely at- 
tended by the staunch Democratic farmers and others. Mr. 
McGregor addressed the meeting in some suitable remarks, 
daring his enemies to point, in his paper, to one expression 
of his opposing the Constitution and Union of our fathers, 
or advocating secession, or a dissolution of the Union. 

A few contemptible " War Democrats " busied themselves 
in poisoning the minds of regular Democrats against Mr. 
McGregor and his paper. In fact, the needy crew were after 
profitable places in Eadical Egypt, and wished to gain favor 
by preventing the re-establishment of the paper under the 
auspices of its old editor, on the plea that he was too extreme 
in his views, etc. Learning their scheme, Mr. McGregor as- 
sured the meeting that he would issue a Stark County Demo- 
crat the next week, and every week afterward. It might not 



ARCHIBALD McGEEGOE. 121 

be larger than his hand, but it would appear, and in time 
become of the usual size, and of the usual tone, evincing a 
free press. This was loudly cheered by the meeting ; and he 
was as good as his word, and his paper has continued in well- 
doing, and still ranks among the decided and staunch Demo- 
cratic papers of the State. 

The morning after the destruction of his property, Mr. 
McGregor had nine of the culprits arrested on criminal pro- 
cess, and bound over to the Common Pleas Court, in iive 
hundred dollars each. The readiness with which twenty-two 
of the leading Eepublican citizens stepped forward and 
bailed the burglars and destroyers of private property, 
showed plainly that they indorsed this act of vandalism. 

By a writ of habeas corpus^ the culprits were taken before 
Probate Judge Underbill, an old Radical Abolitionist, who 
reduced the bail bond to three hundred dollars, and who 
neglected to file the proceedings in the Common Pleas Court, 
as required by statute. 

After the case had been continued for several terms, it was 
at last called by the prosecuting attorney, then a Yankee 
Radical, named Baldwin. The suit for damages is still pend- 
ing, having been continued for six years ! Thus have Radi- 
cal courts dispensed justice and maintained the supremacy 
of the law. 

The usually quiet and law-abiding citizens of Canton were 
surprised, on the morning of Sunday, October 12, 1862, to 
find their town in possession of the military. During the 
night previous, the 120th Regiment 0. V., under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant-Colonel Speigle, had arrived in a special 
train. These were subject to the orders of Jacob Brinker- 
hoff, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. In- 
stead of arresting by civil process, he came, in projoria persona, 
in military hat, with his belt and sword, and well provided 
with arms, prepared to seize civil, unresisting citizens by the 
power of the bayonet. No wonder this " mighty man of 
war " put on lofty military airs, and made his grand entry 
in kingly style. This military force came from Camp Mans- 



122 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

field, a camp for drafted men, then commanded by Charles 
T. Sherman, now Judge of the U. S. District Court of xsTorth- 
ern Ohio. The soldiers had been led to believe that the citi- 
zens of Canton were in open revolt, and had fortified the 
town. Great was their surprise to find the place as quiet as 
a summer morning. 

Quite a number of the " trooly loil " were on hand, at the 
station, to receive and welcome the troops ; and great was 
their delight when the military arrived. They waited upon 
Judge Brinkerhoff, each with his proscription list of " trai- 
tors," whom, as good Christian neighbors, these loyal worthies 
would consign to imprisonment, or a " rope and halter " at 
the first lamp-post. Judge Brinkerhoff' referred the list to 
Draft Commissioner Bierce, who, after due and careful de- 
liberation, returned the list, saying his only duty was " to 
use the military to arrest the drafted soldiers," a few of whom 
had refused to report, as per order. The draft had taken 
place on the 3d of October, and it was important to get the 
drafted men to camp, before the election on the 14th inst. 

The Lincoln leaders well knew the dangers from the draft. 
Judge Brinkerhoff:^, failing to get Commissioner Bierce to 
take the responsibility, ordered the Deputy U. S. Marshal, 
Anson Pease, of Massillon, to arrest Archibald McGregor 
and Peter IST. Reitzell. Accordingly, between 9 and 10 o'clock 
A.M. on that beautiful Sabbath morning. Pease, with a squad 
of soldiers, first arrested Mr. Reitzell in the Baptist church, 
where he was teaching a Sabbath-school class, and afterward 
Mr. McGregor, in his editorial office. 

On being arrested, Mr. McGregor demanded to know his 
authority, but the only reply was, "No matter ; come right 
along " — and the military compelled obedience to this man- 
date. Surrounded by them, he was marched across the pub- 
lic square to Commercial Hall, where he found Mr. Eeitzell. 
The streets were crowded with citizens, most of whom wit- 
nessed the spectacle in silence, but with joy, for most were of 
the Radical class, and hence justified the infamous deed. Only 
a couple of Democrats uttered an indignant exclamation. 



AECHIBALD McGEEGOE. 123 

In passing Cassilly Corner, Mrs, Grimes, an old lady friend, 
came to the door, and, with the cheering tones of a noble 
voice, said : 

" Ah, Alack, the villains have got ye at last ! Eut don't 
be cast down ! " 

McGregor. " !N"ot a bit of it, Mother Grimes ; I 've done 
nothing I am ashamed of!" 

Mrs. Grimes. " No, indeed ! shake that viper (the Mar- 
shal) from your arm. Don't let the villain touch you ! " 

A few minutes' march brought them to the hall. Of course 
the news flew over the country, and while there was much 
indignation, it took no such shape as when the loyal minions 
of King George III. attempted the same arbitrary measures 
in 1775. Well might the suH'erers of the Lincoln tyranny 
exclaim : 

"Oh, for the sword of former time! 
Oh, for the men who bore them — 
When, armed for right, they stood sublime, 
And tyrants fled before them ! " 

The alarm of friends, wives, and children, at these unwar- 
ranted and ruthless arrests, can scarcely now be conceived. 
iN'or can the prevailing terror of that despotic period be fully 
aj^preciated. 

That afternoon, the two prisoners were marched with great 
parade to the station, and taken by special train to Camp 
Mansfield. A large crowd of the loyal, old and young, joy- 
fully witnessed the spectacle, and some of the females waved 
their handkerchiefs, and gave chuckling laughs as the 
prisoners passed by. 

Arriving at the camp, they were placed in the miserable 
dungeon-room, in the camp guard-house, without sleeping 
conveniences of any kind. The intention was to furnish no 
blankets for them; but Mr. McGregor received a call, by re- 
quest, from Colonel French, of the 120th Regiment, who 
ordered , blankets for them. The next day, through the 
kindness of Colonel French, the prisoners were assigned to a 
Bmall and open shanty, twelve by thirteen feet, in which 



124 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

they were securely guarded, and furnislied with no comforts. 
The cold nights required continual walking to keep up the 
circulation. 

After repeated eftbrts, on the third day the prisoners 
obtained an interview with Commandant Sherman, when 
something like the following conversation ensued: 

McGregor. "Colonel Sherman, we are prisoners in your 
camp, and we desire to know of what we are accused, and 
who are our accusers." 

Sherman. " I do not know: your arrest was ordered from 
the Department through Governor Tod, and I am merely 
your custodian." 

McGregor. " "We desire an immediate trial before a legal 
tribunal, but fear not to appear before any, as we have 
been guilty of no infraction of the laws. But really it is 
singular you cannot inform us of our accusers or the charges 
preferred." ^ 

Sherman. " "Well, I will write to Canton to Mr. Bierce, 
to try and get the information. As I told you, I am merely 
3^our custodian, and know nothing about your case or a 
trial." 

McGregor. " W^ell, can you not let us go on bail ? AVe can 
furnish you any amount of security." 

Sherman. " As merely your custodian, I cannot let you 
out on bail. I might give you the privilege of the camp." 

This favor Sherman did grant, and said, as they would 
have to remain, probably, for some time in camp, they had 
better get a stove to make themselves comfortable ; and if 
they chose to do their own cooking, they might draw rations. 
At the end of a week, the prisoners were fully installed at 
house-keeping ; two others, Daniel Tuttle, of Crawford 
County, and Rev. G. W. Ilenning, of Stark County, having 
been added to their household. Mr. Tuttle had been too 
outspoken, and Mr. Henning had been drafted, and had not 
reported. 

The prisoners were in danger of being shot in their quarters, 
so frenzied and vindictive were those who surrounded them. 



ARCHIBALD McGEEGOR. 125 

Some ten days after their arrest, the prisoners were in- 
formed by Judge Sherman that he had received papers from 
Draft Commissioner Bierce, containing the charges. On 
examination, they were found to be mere statements of three 
loyal ■\^orthie8 of Canton, two of whom swore to the same 
statement : Thomas Lloj^d, an ex-English beadle, and Louis 

Miller, of the firm of Aultman, Miller & Co., of . The 

other was an insane man. 

These were all ex-parte statements, no opportunity having 
been given to cross-examine. This farce was performed by 
men of the legal profession, but who could not have had 
much regard for the " majesty of the law." 

These statements sought to give a little color to the charge 
that the prisoners had endeavored to obstruct the draft. Of 
course they were afforded no opportunity to meet their un- 
principled accusers face to face. This trio of willing instru- 
ments pretended to swear to remarks the prisoners had made 
at tlie meeting of drafted men, on October 6, when Mr. 
Eeitzell, by request, had addressed them, and when Mr. 
McGregor, though requested, had declined to do so. The 
fact of the prisoners having no trial whatever, shows the utter 
groundlessness of the charge ; for had the authorities been 
able to make out a case against them, it would undoubtedly 
have been done, or at least attempted. 

There was one other prisoner with them — Hon. L. AV. 
Hall, of Bucyrus — who was allowed to board himself in the 
town of Mansfield, and report to Judge Sherman, in camp, 
every day. Judge Hall was an eminent lawyer, and had re- 
presented his district in Congress, and served as Connnon 
Pleas Judge. Mr. Hall died in January of the following 
year. His arrest was for some remark, reported by a Lincoln 
knave. 

On the 5th of JSTovember, Judge Sherman called on the 
XJrisoners with a despatch from Governor Tod, ordering him 
to release them on their taking the oath. After a day's con- 
sultation, and feeling convinced that no trial would be given 
them, they accepted the proposition, and, with the advice of 



126 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

friends, took the oath. Judge Sherman drew the oath mild, 
merely requiring them to support the Constitution and laws, 
together with the orders of the President in pursuance there- 
icith. After spending in confinement twenty-five " watchful, 
weary, tedious nights," they again found themselves enjoy- 
ing that freedom of which they had been so unjustly deprived. 
The following day, on arriving at the Canton depot, Messrs. 
McGregor and Eeitzell were met by a large concourse of 
earnest friends, with a band of music, and accompanied to the 
public square amid the joyful, ringing cheers of the crowd. 
The ladies who waved their handkerchiefs were not the same 
who had given such demonstrations of joy when they were 
arrested and as prisoners were being dragged ruthlessly from 
their homes, a few weeks previous. Friends accompanied 
them to their respective homes, and, at Mr. McGregor's resi- 
dence, that gentleman, in a few appropriate remarks, thanked 
them cordially for the noble demonstration, and said that he 
would remember and cherish it as the proudest moment of 
his life. lie had done nothing he regretted — nothing that 
he or his family might blush for ; that he had stood up for 
liberty, and that he should still continue to advocate truth, 
justice, and constitutional liberty. He immediately relieved 
Mrs. McGregor from the editorial charge of his paper ; and 
his friends, and enemies too, have since continued to hear 
from him through the columns of a free and untrammelled 
press. 



JOSEPH IvUGLER. 

JOSEPH IvUGLER was- born in Hunterdon County, New 
Jersey, in 1805, and spent the most of his life there. He 
was a farmer by occupation, and had, through industry and 
economy, accumuhited considerable property. He was a de- 
voted Christian,, and had for several years prior to his death 
been an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He never sought 
political preferment. His generosity and charity, together 
with the kindness-and meekness of his disposition, endeared 
him to all who knew him. 

At the breaking out of hostilities in 1861, he was watched, 
and often drawn into conversation by his political opponents, 
who, knowing him to be a firm and devoted Democrat, hoped 
that he might utter some sentiment which would enable 
them to procure his arrest and incarceration. 

On the 16th of August, 1862, he was arrested at his house 
at Erenchtown, N. J., by Deputy Marshal Abraham Harris, 
assisted by a man, named Dean, from Trenton. He was 
lodged in the jail at Mount Holly, Burlington County, where 
he remained for six days, when, by the order of Edwin M. 
Stanton, Secretary of War, he was transferred to the Old 
Capitol Prison, Washington, D. C. 

His arrest was made on the affidavit of S. B. Hudnut, and 
others, who certified that on the 8th of August, 1862, he 
had said: "Lincoln had no right to call out seventy-five 
thousand troops, without first convening Congress ; and that 
if the South had her just dues there would never have been 
a rebellion ; and that his conversation generally had a tend- 
ency to discourage enlistments." On ascertaining the cause 
of his arrest, his son obtained several affidavits from men of 
both parties, denying the above-stated assertions of Hudnut 

1^7 



128 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

and others. These he placed in the hands of Judge Advocate 
Turner at Washington. 

Through the influence of ex-Governor Yroom, of Trenton, 
Colonel Murphy, of the 10th jS'ew Jersey Volunt?eers, and 
others, Mr. Kugler was released from confinement, after a 
detention of eight days, wit-'Hout heing ret^uired to take the 
oath of allegiance. 

He returned home, where he peacefully resided until early 
in 1864, when he was stricken dow^n by sickness, and died 
like a Christian, with his " converse with heaven alone." 



110^. WILLIAM HEWITT CARLIN. 

"Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house." 

HOK WILLIAM HEWITT CAELm was the son ot 
tlie late Governor Carlin, of Illinois. Ilis father was 
a Kentuckian, his mother a Georgian. Mr. Carlin was born 
April 20, 1816, in Madison County, Illinois, and spent his 
life on the banks of the Mississippi River. 

He was educated in Jacksonville, Illinois, and was a good 
scholar, of a highly cultivated taste. He commenced the 
practice of law under the Hon. J. N. Morris, formerly a dis- 
tinguished Democratic member of Congress, of Illinois, and 
a particular friend of the late Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. 

He was elected to the Senate of the State of Illinois, and 
served the people with ability for five years. He was post- 
master at Quincy, under President Buchanan ; and had been 
Clerk of the Circuit Court of Greene County, Illinois. Such 
were the ancestry and public career of Mr. Carlin in the re- 
spective communities where he was born, raised, educated, 
and honored by the people. 

Mr. Carlin was intimately acquainted with Abraham Lin- 
coln ; had always treated him with the greatest kindness, 
and was his friend,. when Lincoln needed friends. Between 
himself and Lincoln there was great disparity in every respect. 
In ancestry, Carlin was the son of the Governor of the State ; 
Lincoln was of obscure origin. Carlin was a scholar ; Lin- 
coln understood no language. Carlin was courteous, kind, 
and polished; Lincoln was uncoutli, dogmatical, and vulgar. 

On the 15th day of May, 1863, while over the Missouri 
River, in West Quincy, Mr, Carlin was arrested by a gang of 
9 129 



130 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

that uutaniaLlo rabble known as the Missouri ^vlilitia, than 
whom no greater outlaws were ever intrusted with a human 
being as prisoner. He was carried to Palmyra, taunted, tor- 
tured, and threatened with death by these vagabond merce- 
naries, who robl)ed him of his arms, worth about iifty dollars, 
and other va!ual)les on his person. His only crime was his 
manly defence of liljerty, when there was scarcely a friend 
left to do it homage.' He was imprisoned in McDowell's Col- 
lege, and subjected to the most rigorous treatment, although 
Colonel James 0. Broadhead, the Provost-Marshal, had been 
his intimate friend. The following correspondence will ex- 
liil)it this, as a sample of arbitrary power and the instru- 
ments employed to enforce it : '^ 

" Colonel Biioadiiead : 

^' Sir : As all my efforts to communicate with you personally 
have failed, permit me to occupy your attention for a moment, 
M'itli tliis note. I have been a ])risoncr since tlie 15Lh of ^lay, 
and to-day do not know for what I was arrested, or upon M'liat 
cliarge I am now held. All eommunicatioi:^s for tliis iiifurnuUion 
remain unanswered. Under these circumstances, I am tendered 
a 'release from my present arrest' upon condition that I take an 
oath of allegiance. If I should take that oath, it would certainly 
im}>]y two things : 

"First. A plea of guilt}^ to an unknown charge. 

" Secondly. An admission on my part, that I had already for- 
feited my allegiance to the Government. 

"Truth and self-respect forbid any such concessions. Would 
it not be reasonable to furnish me with a copy of the charges, 
give me time to take testimony, or procure witnesses and prepare 
a defence? Holding me thus in ignorance and suspense is ruin- 
ous. My business, my family, and my health (now seriously 
impaired) are all ne^-lected. Under these circumstances, may 1 
not hope for a definite answer? W. II. Carlin." 

The following luminous epistle will sound strange in the 
ears of a well-educated American lawyer: 

"Every government reserves to itself the right of requii'ing. 
through its proper authorities, the renewal of the obligations of 



WILLIAM HEWITT CARLIN. 131 

allegiance, which rests upon every citizen, and it is no impeach- 
ment of his loyalty that he should be required to do so. 

Jas. O. Broadheai). 

Pro. Mar. Gen." 

" Headquarters Department of the Missouri, 

Office Provost Marshal General, 

St. Louis, June 17, 1S63. 

f 
" tarole. 

"I, W. H. Carlin, of Adams County, Illinois, do hereby promise, 

upon my woi"d of honor, that I "vvill remain within the limits of 

the city of St. Louis, Missouri, until further orders from the 

Provost Marshal General, pending the examination of my case, 

and that I will report in person to said Provost Marshal General 

tri-weekly, until further orders. W. H. Carlin." 

"On the above parole, said Carlin has been this day released 
as above. Jas. O. Broadhead, 

Lieut. -Col. and Provost Marshal General. 
"James F. Dwight, Capt., and Assist. Insp. General, 
Department of the Missouri." 

" Headquarters Department of the Missouri, 

Office Provost Marshal General, 

St. Louis, July 7, 1863. 

"The within parole of "W. H. Carlin, of Adams County, Illi- 
nois, is hereby modified, and extended so as to permit him to 
go to the State of Illinois, and the State of Missouri, and to re- 
side in either State, and- report weekly by letter to this ofSce. 

Jas. O. Broadhead, 
Lieut.-Col. and Pro. Marshal General, 
Department of the Mo." 

" Headquarters Department of the Missouri, 
Office Provost Marshal General, 
St. Louis, June 20, 1863. 
" parole. 
"I, 'W. 11. Carlin, of Adams County, Illinois, in consideration 
of being permitted to go to Quinoy, Illinois, for one week from 
this date, do hereby promise, upon my word of honor, that I 
will return to the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and will report 



132 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

in person to the Provost Marshal General, Department of the 
Missouri, at the expiration of that time, and will hold no com- 
munication with any disloyal persons. W. H. Carlin. 

'^Witness: Edward Spahr, Clerk, office of the Provost Marshal 
General, Department of the Missouri. 
"Eeported back, June 27, 1863. 

Edward Spahr, Clerk." 
1 
"Headquarters Department of the Missouri, 
Office of the Provost Marshal General, 
St. Louis, June 20, 1863. 

" Special Order, Xo. 22. 
" IV. The parole of W. H. Carlin, of Adams County, Illinois, 
is hereby extended so as to permit him to go to Quincy, Illinois, 
for one week, at the expiration of which time he will report back 
to this office. 

"By command of Major-General Schofield. 

Jas. O. Broadhead, 
Provost Marshal General." 

"Headquarters Department of the Missouri, 
t OflSce Provost Marshal General, 

St. Louis, July 7, 1863. 

"Special Orders, No. 32. 
"VII. The parole of W. H. Carlin, of Adams County, Illinois, 
is hereby modified and extended so as to permit said Carlin to 
reside in the State of Illinois, or in the State of Missouri, and to 
report weekly b}^ letter to this office. 

''By command of Major-General Schofield. 

Jas. O. Broadhead, 
Lieut. -Col. and Provost Marshal General." 

"Headquarters Department of the Missouri, 
Office Provost Marshal General, 
St. Louis, August 18, 1863. 
"The parole of AV. II. Carlin is hereby extended so as to in- 
clude the State of Iowa. Jas. O. Broadhead, 

Lieut.-Col and Provost Marshal General, 
Department of the Missouri." 



WILLIAM HEWITT CARLIN.' 133 

Xo charges were ever preferred against Mr. Carlin, and 
through the brutal treatment to which he was exposed, he 
died, and died without a release from his parole. The Gov- 
ernment of Russia, Austria, or China has never exceeded the 
crimes which led to the death of Senator Carlin. 

His mind was utterly impaired by his imprisonment ; until 
the day of his death he never recovered. At Chicago, in 1864, 
during the Convention, he became excited, and all the outrages 
which had been inflicted upon him recurred to his mind in 
their most oifensive form. He became more and more in- 
flamed until his death. He was attacked on Friday morning 
with general congestion, and died Saturday evening, about 
four o'clock. His suifering in prison was more intensified 
and aggravated by the following facts : 

1st. He was the personal friend of Lincoln, though his 
jx)litical enemy. 

2d. There were no charges against him. 

Sd. His Republican creditors bankrupted him while in 
prison, and left his helpless family in destitution. 



HOX. CHARLES INGERSOLL, A^D EDWARD 
IXGERSOLL, ESQ. 

OX tlie loth of April, 1865, on tlie occasion of tlie celebra- 
tion of Jefferson's birthday, in the city of New York, 
Mr. Edward Ingersoll, in answer to a toast deprecating the 
enormous Federal indebtedness, with which the war had 
overwhelmed the country, advocated the doctrine of State 
Rights as the only real basis of our Fedei*al Union, or upon 
which, in the nature of things, our Union could permanently 
rest. Mr. Ino-ersoll also aro-ued that if this overwhelmine; 
debt was revolutionary, either in its purpose or in its effect, 
if it had been created either in express disregard of the pro- 
visions of our written Constitution of Government, or still 
more, if it had been created with the design of overthrowing 
our liberties and system of laws, the people, who were in- 
terested in protecting their wise system of free government, 
were certainly not bound to recognize as honest the obliga- 
tions of such a debt ; that no sense of national honor, how- 
ever i-efined or impracticably delicate, could call upon a people 
who loved their institutions, and were willing to defend them, 
to pay a debt created in the teeth of the express provisions 
of their Constitution of Government ; and the certain poli- 
tical result of the permanent establishment of which debt 
must be to render that Constitution of Government irre- 
coverably and forever impossible. Whether there was truth 
and logic in this proposition that struck hard at the money 
powere of the country, who for some years past had been 
allowing themselves to be made the tools of jx)litical Aboli- 
tionism, we cannot say, but certain it is that Mr. Edward 
Ingersoll, a Philadelphia lawyer and a respectable citizen, 
who had heretofore been but little before the public, was 

134 



CHARLES AXD EDWARD I N G E R S O L L. 135 

tliouglit -wortliy of the fiercest newspaper denunciation and 
assault. President Lincoln's assassination on the night of 
Good Frida}', April 14th, had aroused the people, as well as 
the madmen who had been for some years misgoverning the 
country, to a sense of solemnity, at least. Several of the 
partisan presses of Philadelphia were untiring in their etforts 
to excite a2:aiust Mr. Ingersoll some mode of personal attack. 
A well-known member of the Union League assured a friend, 
that, to his knowledge, nothing had prevented Mr. Ingersoll's 
house being burned, but the fact that he occupied a rented 
one, and which belonged to a loyal man. Mr. Ingersoll Avas 
threatened, by an official communication from the United 
States District Attornej^ of Philadelphia, with prosecution 
for treason, for some of the sentiments of the isew York 
speech. He was notified by the president of the bank where 
he had for many years deposited his money, to withdraw his 
account, as a person unworthy of even such exalted pecu- 
niary relationship. So indignant was the exhibition of feel- 
ing on the part of the money powers against what Mr. In- 
o-ersoU thouo-ht to be the fair defence of a free citizen in behalf 
of the institutions of his countr}', that these facts, together 
with' the receipt of anonymous threatening letters, induced 
him (most fortunately as it proved) to provide himself with 
a pocket pistol, to meet the event of unavoidable necessity, 
should it occur. 

On the morning of April 2Tth, on entering the cars as 
usual, in coming to his place of business, from his residence 
in the neighborhood of the city, ^Ir. Ingersoll was assailed 
1)y the cry of " Traitor " from an adjoining car, and found 
himself the object of considerable observation. iSTothing 
further was said or done, however, till, on stepping from the 
cars when the train had arrived at the depot, a man was ob- 
served calling to some persons to follow, and saying, pointing 
to Mr. Ingersoll, " There he goes." Mr. Ingersoll walked to 
the corner close by, to wait for the street car. While there, 
the assailant, with his backers, came up, and after some in- 
solent demand, which was ])ronipth' and fill}- replied to, an 



136 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

attack was made upon liim, led on, as lie subsequently learned, 
hj a little Captain of volunteers, the son of a Yankee Ger- 
mantown schoolmaster, the father being also in the assault- 
ing; crowd. Mr. Ino-ersoll defended himself as w^ell as he 
could, till, overwhelmed by odds, and his cane breaking in his 
hand, he retreated a few yards, and drawing his pistol from 
his pocket, cocked it promptly in the face of his assailants. 
The effect was magical. The assailants with unanimity. Cap- 
tain and all, retreated with such precipitancy as to endanger 
their limbs ; some of them actually falling in the street. 
There could be no popular sentiment against anything that 
Mr. Ingcrsoll had said or done. There was none, nor any 
mob in any bold sense of the word. The battle was over, 
and Mr. Ingersoll would have ridden down to his place of 
business in the street cars, as usual. Here, however, the city 
government, whose duty it is to protect good citizens, and 
repress evil-doers, stepped in. 

Mr. Ingersoll was seized by, first, one policeman, then two, 
to whom he, of course, oflered no resistance. He was carried 
through the streets for several squares, followed by a gaping 
crowd of girls and boys, who gather promptly to a street 
scene. Taken to a station-house, a police magistrate was 
sent for, and then, after a mock examination, at which the 
Captain who had led the assailants had the impudence to 
appear and give his testimony, the prisoner was committed, 
in default of $2,000 bail, '•'■for assault and bcdiery icith intent 
to kill, and carrying concealed deadly weapons." After being 
much jeered and insulted by the numerous body of police- 
men who frequented the station-house, the prisoner was 
locked in a cell, and there kept during the remainder of the 
day ; bail having been refused on the ground that the au- 
thorities at Washington had been written to, and a charge 
of high treason was to be preferred against him. 

In the mean time, in the afternoon of that day, Mr. Charles 
Ingersoll, a brother of the prisoner, who was approaching 
the station-house in a carriage to visit his brother, with a 
view to legal arrangements for his release, was, immediately 



CHAELES AXD ED W A ED INGEESOLL. 137 

in front of the station-liouse, assaulted and most violently 
and brutally beaten. A night watchman at the Custom 
House, a hired bully of the town, was one of the immediate 
assailants. There was at the time within and immediately 
in front of the station-house, a very large force of police. 
IsTo arrests were made, nor any efibrt of the sort. Indeed, 
when Mr. Ingersoll got into the house, wounded and bleed- 
ing as he was, the plain, though mutually expressed senti- 
ment of the numerous surrounding policemen was, that it 
was " a good thing " " well done." Mr. Ingersoll presented 
a terrible spectacle, and for several da^^s much apprehension 
was entertained for the safety of his life. 

Hon. Charles Ingersoll is a citizen of Philadelphia, not 
only of the highest respectability and character, but has been 
prominently before the political public as a Democrat. Dur- 
ing the early years of the war, when Mr. President Lincoln 
and his minions first boldly undertook to disregard the law 
and the rights of citizens, Mr. Ingersoll had been arrested 
by orders from "Washington for his bold use of " free speech " 
in opposing the madness of the hour. He was at that time 
discharged on habeas corpus by the Federal District Judge. 

On the evening of April 27, Mr. Edward Ingersoll was 
carried to prison, and there confined until the next day, when 
he was discharged on bail. During his transit to prison, the 
policeman who conducted him kept up, most anxiously, the 
same feigned apprehension of alarm from popular excitement 
against the prisoner. The idea was sedulously given out that 
but for the invaluable 'police force ^ the life of the citizen would 
be unsafe. The truth was, that but for these rascally authori- 
ties^ who were fomenting outrages against resp)ectable citizens of 
certain political sentiments, there was then no element what- 
ever of public violence in the streets of Philadelphia. 

On the 5th of May, resolutions were introduced into each 
branch of the City Councils, proposing an inquiry into the 
conduct of the police on the occasion of the assault upon Mr. 
Charles Ingersoll, and instructing the Mayor to offer a reward 
of five hundred dollars for the arrest and conviction of the 



138 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

assailants. After considerable debate, tlie resolutions, in both 
cbambers, were rejected b}^ an overwhelming and strict party 
vote. 

The President of the Select Council, in giving his vote 
against the resolutions, said : " The action of the Chamber 
should be placed on one single ground. 

" It is not the business of loyal men to go out of their way 
to save disloyal men from the consequences of their conduct." 

"A poor negro was in court yesterda}'," said another of 
the members, " complaining that he bad been badly beaten. 
Why not olFer a reward of five hundred dollars for his assail- 
ant, for he is far more entitled to respect than such a man as 
Charles Ingersoll." 



HOK ja:mes av. wall. 

HOX. JAMES W. WALL, of Isew Jersey, was arrested 
on the 11th day of September, 1861. The circum- 
Btances of the arrest were as follows : — He was about sit- 
ting down at his dinner-table, when a servant announced 
that a Mr. Thomas, with wlioni he had some business trans- 
actions, desired to see him at once in his office. All uncon- 
scious of harm, he proceeded to his office, and there, instead 
of Mr. Thomas, found the United States Marshal for the Dis- 
trict of New Jersey, Benajah Deacon, and the Mayor of the 
City of Burlington. The Marshal informed him, on entering, 
" that he had a warrant for his arrest." He asked him " at 
whose suit ? " The Marshal replied : "At the suit of the 
Government." Mr. Wall at once responded : " I do not owe 
the Government anything, I believe ; but, however, let me 
look at your warrant." He immediately handed him a coj)^ 
of a telegram, in these words: 

"To Bf:NAjAH Deacon, Esq., Marshal. 

"You are hereby commanded to arrest James W. "Wall, of the 
city of Burlington, and convey him to Fort Lafayette, New York 
Harbor, forthwith. 

"i??/ order of the Secretary of War. 

''Dated Sfptemher 11, 1861." 

Upon reading this most curious document, he asked him 
how he received it, and the reply Avas, by telegraph. Mr. 
Wall said, " The Government is rather expeditious. How- 
ever, I demand to know the nature of the accusation, and to 
fice the copy of the affidavit upon which this winged warrant 
is based ?" To these interrogations the Marshal replied : " I 
know nothing of either." Mr. Wall further asked : " Is 

139 



140 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Simon Cameron, wlio now claims to be Secretary of War, a 
judicial officer?" To all this tlie Marslial's reply was the 
same as before: "I know nothing about all this," adding, 
" nor is it my business to knoiv." Mr. "Wall quickly responded: 
"It is your business, sir ; you have entered my house against 
my will, without legal authority, and if you were to attempt 
force to execute that order you hold in your hand, and I was 
to kill you in the act, I would stand perfectly justified in the 
eye of the law ; and I now inform you, that I shall decline 
accompanying you as your prisoner, and if you attempt to 
coerce me, you will do so at your peril." He very quickly 
replied : " Oh ! I know you, and have not come unprepared ; 
see there ! " opening, as he said so, a Venetian blind, that 
screened the window looking into the back yard. He looked, 
and there saw some five men, who, the Marshal said, were 
his deputies to aid him in the arrest. Mr. Wall sprang upon 
him at once, seized him by the throat, and, hurling him 
nearly across the room, made for the interior of the house, 
and when just at the turn of his main staircase, the front 
door was burst violently open, and four more ruffians made 
their appearance, the five in the rear yard closing rapidly on 
him. He struck one of the men in front, knocking him 
down, when he was assaulted by four or five. In the strug- 
gle he had the bosom of his shirt torn out and the sleeve 
entirely off". Without a hat, he was forced violently upon 
the pavement, and by main force, though resisting most of 
the way, was carried to Belder's Hotel. His family were 
compelled to witness this outrage without being able to ren- 
der him any assistance, except in bitter remonstrances against 
the outrage, and of course were very much terrified and 
alarmed. Mr. Wall was at Belder's Hotel but a few minutes 
before the train arrived from Philadelphia ; but during that 
time, the Marshal, observing a gathering outside, and appre- 
hending a rescue, remarked : "/(f will do no good to rescue you ; 
as I have orders to call for one of the regiments in that event, now 
in Trenton, and execute the 'process." There was no attempt 
at rescue, nor was there any time, for it was not more than 



JAMES W. WALL. 141 

five minutes after his arrival at the hotel before the train 
came. 

He was then taken, accompanied by the Marshal and some 
seven of his deputies, and handed over to the custody of 
Colonel Burke, then commanding at Fort Hamilton, and by 
him transferred to the custody of Lieutenant Wood, at Fort 
Lafayette, in N'ew York Harbor. Here he remained a close 
prisoner until the 24th day of September of the same year ; 
when he was released by order of Wm. H. Seward, Secretary 
of State. Mr. Wall was confined in cell No. 3, in that For- 
tress. It was an arched casemate with a brick floor, and 
lighted with two narrow barred windows. This cell was 
some fifteen feet in width by twenty in depth, and at the 
time of his incarceration contained some twcmti/ prisoners. It 
was exceedingly damp, so much so that the moisture ran 
down the walls, saturating the bedding. Several of the' 
prisoners, and himself among the rest, in consequence suftered 
from severe attacks of rheumatism. During the day, the 
prisoners had the range of the Fort, upon obtaining permis- 
sion from the guards. In the evening at iive o'clock they were 
locked in their cells, and not released until early in the morn- 
ing. There were no conveniences of course for washing, and 
all that had to be done outside, with fetid water taken from 
a cistern containing the foulest of wells ; indeed, for the first 
week, the water from the cistern was the only water that 
they had to drink, and several in consequence suffered from 
dysentery. Those of the prisoners who had money were 
permitted to form a mess, employing the steward of the Fort 
to furnish two meals a day ; but those who had no means, 
were compelled to partake with the soldiers of the garrison, 
of their rough and scanty fair. 

Their correspondence was submitted to the most rigid 
surveillance of the commander of the post, and all letters con- 
taining applications for release, or the emploi/ment of counsel, 
were returned to them., with a statement that hy orders of the 
" Government" no such letters were allowed to 'pass out the Fort. 
Lieutenant Wood himself exhausted his ingenuity in devising 



142 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ways and means to annoy and irritate the prisoners, by the 
exercise of every species of petty tyranny. This man had 
formerly been a railroad conductor, and was rewarded by 
Lincoln with a coiamission in the army^ on account of his 
services in carrying him safely from Harrisburg, at the time 
he went secretly to Washington, disguised in a Scotch cloak 
and military cap. At the time of Mr. Wall's confinement, 
there must have been o\q,y four hundred prisoners in the Fort. 
Some were blockade-runners, some were prisoners of war; 
but the greater part were prisoners of state, most of them 
from the Border States. The members of the Maryland Le- 
gislature only arrived the evening before- he left, a new case- 
mate having been opened for their accommodation. 

He never to this day, has been able to ascertain the grounds 
of his arrest. He had been very active in denouncing the 
war and the constitutional violations of the rights of the 
citizen ; and had for three months previously written the 
principal editorials of the Xew York " Dailj^ News." He had 
also addressed a letter, which was published, to Montgomery 
P. Blair, then Postmaster General, denounciug severely the 
interference with the liberty of the press by that Depart- 
ment, in which, among other things, he said : 

" Your recent high-handed unconstitutional act in preventing 
certain newspapers from being circuhited through the mails, will 
meet, as it deserves, the indignant protest of every freeman. If 
the proscribed papers have reflected severely upon this t3'ranni- 
cal Administration, they had a perfect right so to do in a re- 
public, where it has been our most cherished boast that the 
acts of our rulers were open to the freest scrutiny. In fact, the 
right of examining the character of our public servan-ts, and 
commenting freely upon their public conduct, is the sentinel 
standing at the door, and guarding every other right. If the 
people relinquish this, they deserve to be slaves 

'• )iir fathers were intimate friends, and although your father 
to-diiy belongs to the Eepublican part}", I cannot believe that he 
indorses the recent arbitrary acts of xoiw Department; or else 
he must prove recreant to the doctrine he proclaimed years ago 



JAMES W. WALL. 143 

in the ' Globe,' of which he was, at the time, the editoi*. In 
that able and influential journal, in speaking of the attempt 
made to pass a bill through the Senate, preventing the interfer- 
ence of Federal olRcers in elections, against which my father 
had made a report in his place in the Senate, as Chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee, he once said: ' Under no jyossible circum- 
stances, not even in Insurrection, or amid the throes of civil war, could 
the Government justify official interference icith the freedom of speech, 
or of the press, any more than with the freedom of the ballot. The 
licentiousness of the tongue or the pen is a minor evil, compared with 
the licentiousness of arbitrary power.' Little could he have then 
supposed that one of his own sons would lend himself to carry 
out an arbitrary edict, that prostrated this boasted freedom at a 
blow. Yet he has lived to see it. 

"You have assumed to dictate to me what political papers I 
may receive. "Where do 3'ou derive that right? You have just 
as much right to say what religious journals I may receive. I 
am in favor of peace ; I have a right to be for a cessation of this 
most cruel, unnatural war, for an appeal from the acts of this ty- 
rannical Government to the people, an appeal from 'Philip drunk 
to Philip sober.' I will Avork for it, write for it, pray for it, do 
anything but fight for it, in defiance of all the imperial ukases 
that may be issued from Washington. If this war must go on, 
let it be waged within the limits of the Constitution, Wage it 
against the enemy south of the Potomac, and not against peace- 
loving citizens of the North, whose only crime consists in loving 
the old Constitution so well, that they cannot possess their souls 
in patience when they behold the far-famed higher laws of the 
infamous Seward substituted in its place." 

He also, in a public speecli denunciatory of the war, declared : 

" The war had a fourfold object. First, power; second, plun- 
der ; third, negro equality; and fourth. Southern subjugation. 
They have already taken two sides of this quadrilateral ; and let 
them triumph, and they will take the other two; and the rights 
of the States and constitutional liberty will find their graves, 
from which there shall be no resurrection." 

His zeal, activity, and earnestness brought down upon him 



144 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the intense hatred of the lying Abolitionists of the city of 
Burlington. The Mayor of the city, Wm. R. Allen, and 
Jacob Lawmaster, the Postmaster, despatched a letter to 
Washington, declaring that he was a dangerous person, and 
the order came in response over the telegraphic wires, such 
as we have given above. " Those were times," as Mr. Wall 
said afterward in the U. S. Senate, on the Indemnity Bill, 
" when the post-offices had become each like the lion's mouth 
at Venice, where the secret and dastardly informer might 
lodge his lying accusation, and from a tribunal as inexoi*- 
able as the far-famed Council of Ten, would come as swift 
and as sure over the telegraphic wires, the mandate that con- 
signed the unsuspecting citizen to some military dungeon of 
the republic — it might be Fort Warren, it might be Fort 
Lafayette." 

On his return home from his imprisonment, Mr. Wall was 
honored with a public ovation by the citizens of his town, 
which is thus described in the journals of his county : 

" The release of Colonel Wall from Fort Lafayette, and his 
reception on Friday night, when he returned to his family, his 
home, and numerous fi'iends, produced a rejoicing exceeding any- 
thing ever before known in that city. Notwithstanding the dis- 
appointment of a large number of people who had assembled at 
Mount Holly to come in by railroad, and the severity of a heavy 
storm of wind and rain, which made it impossible for hundreds 
of others to leave Beverly, Eancocas, Jacksonville, and other 
villages in our county — and so with man}" others in Philadelphia 
and Bristol, and many of our own citizens — there were not less 
than one thousand persons at the depot waiting his arrival. 

"As he stepped upon the platform, the dense mass greeted 
him in the fulness of their hearts. It was no strained effort on 
the part of many who had sympathized with himself and family, 
for the cheers of welcome came long, loud, full, and free. He 
entered a carriage in waiting, preceded by a large transparency, 
bearing the words : ' James W. Wall, the Defender of the Consti- 
tution, Welcome Home,' with the American flag. The carria.2;e 
was encircled by a large number of men bearing torchlights, 



JAMES W. WALL. 145 

followed by a band of music and some five hundred torch-bear- 
ers in procession. 

"As the procession moved along, Main Street was filled with 
men, women, and children, while all the houses of prominent 
Democrats were illuminated. Continued cheering rent the air. 
At the steps of his residence he was received between two lines 
of young ladies, dressed in white, who strewed flowers along his 
pathway, from the carriage to the house. As he entered his 
door, the band struck up the air of 'Home, sweet home ! ' After 
a few moments spent with his family, he returned to his stejis, 
and thus addressed the immense crowd that completely blocked 
up the square, as follows: 

'"]\Iy fellow-townsmen : My heart is full to-night, so full that 
I can scarcely give adequate expression to the emotions that 
crowd upon me, as I look out upon this heartfelt, this magnifi- 
cent demonstration. What a striking contrast is presented to 
the melancholy scene, hardly a fortnight ago, when I was 
dragged ruthlessly from these steps, torn mercilessly from the 
clinging embraces of the dear ones at home, and consigned to 
the tender mercies of the brutal military despotism that rules 
with iron sway within the gloomy walls of the American Bastile. 
This enthusiastic reception, my friends; these shouts of hearty 
welcome ; these bright and happy faces ; these beautiful flowers 
strewn in my pathway by such fair hands; the cheering, dancing 
light of your flaming torches; and the inscription on your trans- 
parencies — all unite to convince me how lovingly you bear me 
in your hearts. Such a reception is the more welcome, because 
it wears a double significancy. It assures me, in the fii'st place, 
that you, m}' neighbors and friends, among whom I have gone 
in and out so many j-ears, symj^athize with me in the cruel 
wrongs and outrages to which I have been subjected. In the 
second place, it is a manifestation, strong as holy writ, that you 
believe that I am wholly innocent of any charge of disobedience 
to the laws, or any imputation upon m}^ fame as a Constitution- 
loving citizen. "Charge," did I say? Why, my friends, would 
you believe it, from the hour that I was torn so ruthlessly from my 
home, through the long and tedious moments of my cruel im- 
prisonment, up to this joyful moment, when I look out once more 
a fi-eeman, over these kindly, gladsome ftiecs, now upturned to 
10 



14(> A M i; II I (' A N r. A S T I I. E. 

^r(H-L utid clicci' iiic, / Imvc. n(jt been able, to asccrUdn wluit thone 
clunujcs (ire. 1 liiiv(; in vain (lcrriii(i(ic(J IVoni the (jovcti'iitiionl thy 
iial lire; ()(' (III! (•liar;j;<'H, and clainKMl the consl itiil ional |ii'ivil(!^(} 
ol' lu'in;^ inCorincfi ol' llic, nat-iiro and (taiiHO of tlir accusation, 
and to l)(; <;onlV()ntcd with th(! witJUiHscs against nn^ IJut up to 
thJK lioiif, thi" ^ravc could not hav(i Ix-cn inoi-c, nilcnt. (ii'cat 
hcuvciiHl can it ho poHsihhs. - .11' wo liavo no ri^litH lunhM- our 
( 'onHtitution, what then [x'conms oC tho vahie of the Union fV>i' 
wiiich it iw ))i-c,tcn<h'd wc arc; (i^dilini^. Wo hav(! ix^ard a <i;rc'at 
doal, (hirin;^ tiio wr(!t(di(',d Kti-ilb in whi(di tho nation iw cn;;ai^cd, 
in tearing out its own li(;art-sti'in<fH, oC pr(!scrvin^ th(! National 
iil'c, hut the (JoiiHtitiition in tho Union. The ('onHtitution and 
tlio Union, uc(;(jrdin^ to tlio tiicoi-y in wliidi I liavc h(;cn tau;fht, 
aro orui and inKc,])arahh^ 

"'In fact, tlic (/'oiiHtil III ion was made; Id i'oi'ni a nioi'c pcrCcct 
Union. 'I'licy live in and hj and throu;;;h (;ach oilier. When 
tho one jx'-rishoH, tin; oIIkm* dioH — tho destnictiori of the (»iie in- 
V(dv(;s the. Hiihvt'rsion ol" the other; nay, th<i Huhvci'sioii of tho 
(/Oiistitiition is rtivolnt ion, t'or it chaiijM's the whole Iranu^work 
of oui" ( iovei"nni(»nl . I ear(> not whcllier tho hlow cotnos from 
the North or the South, tha,t is aiine(l at tho ( 'onst itut ion, it is 
aimed at the Nation's lii'e. 

"'In I ha,t (/onstitiil ion, tin; reservecl rights of the States aro 
the.r(5 seemHid — tho <;i-ant-ed powiirs ol" the; (iovei'nnieiit ihei'c 
<l(din(;d. 

"''IMiose ;i;reat, ahsoliil(^ I'i^dils of the cili/.(;ii, si^curin;^ {'vi^o 
Hpeecdi, {'vvii l,houi;ht, ami \'vrv ]»cr,son, ai'o thcu'i;. Tluiso aro tho 
Holemn (dauses that jirotect tJie citi/.-rii's /Kruon front (irbUnirtj tirirsf, 
/lis propcriij from arbUrfrri/ inrasiou, iiin/ /u'n life from arbi/ruri/ inicr- 
fiTciirc. These all are to he Iniind in the aiiieiidmeiits to your 
i'onstitution, that have Ikhmi most appropriately called, ' '/'/n: 7V/i 
(^ommandmvnix of Amrrican l'\-rriii(')i.' It is tnu; they wM-ro not 
(hdivered like those of old, 'mid the li<»'htiiin^s and thunder 
of Sinai, hut they were no less writlen upon tlu; hearlsof free- 
men hy Divine inspiration, they an; ( Jod •;'iveii ritrlits, t-o Ik; en- 
joyed as the air you hreaihe, or as the water you drink', and I ho 
man who would deprive you of them is a tyrant, and tin; peopK; 
who would siihmit to smdi deprivation are lit, only to he; slaves. 

"'Our fathers caui^hl the iiispirin;^ strain from Mat:;na ('liai'ta, 



JAMES W. WALL. 147 

and it was prolonged in that sonorous sentence in our own Con- 
stitution — 'JVo person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
KithoMt due process of law' — 'due process of law,' 'the law which 
hears before it condemns, and punishes only after conviction.' 
Cherish, my friends, these great rights thus guaranteed to you in 
your Constitution — never surrender them, never allow them to 
be compromised, or gainsayed, for they constitute the Keystone 
of the Arch of Freedom. Take them away, and the springing 
arch falls in ruins. We only call that Government free, which 
not only shelters its subjects from the injustice of the many, but 
from the tyranny of the one or the few. We, as a people, are 
free, because from ancient times there came laws, as if written 
with the finger of the Highest — free, because to us in this day, 
it was thought conscience and opinion were free. It is a glorious 
thought that the law of the land recognizes there is a part about 
every man's affairs so sacred that it must not be crossed either 
by inquisition or inquiry. The freedom of the citizen from all 
illegal arrest, the freedom of his hearth-stone from arbitrary in- 
vasion, and the freedom of his conscience from all manner of 
restraint; these constitute the Urim and the Thummim, the 
breastplate of Light and Truth 'round the heart of the American 
citizen, in the time of trial and danger; and when he demands 
rights that have been denied him, they will impart a rich elo- 
quence to his tongue, the wisdom of authority, and the mighty 
pathos of justice to the utterance of his lips.' " 

Mr. Wall continued in this strain for over an hour, liold- 
ing the crowd sjxjll-boiind upon his lips. After the conclu- 
sion of his speech they were invited into his mansion, and 
for two hours, men, women, and children thronged in to take 
him by the hand, and thank him for the courage he had 
manifested, and to sympathize with him in the sufferings he 
had so bravely borne. At the next ses.sion of his State Le- 
gislature, after his imprisonment, Mr. Wall addressed a long 
memorial to that body, denouncing the violation of the 33ill 
OF Rights of the State, in his person, and arguing the un- 
constitutionality of the proceeding, and which concluded as 
follows : 



148 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" What course you, tlie representatives of the State of Xew 
Jersej', may deem proper to take, in reference to this wanton 
outrage upon the constitutionally guaranteed rights of one of 
3'our citizens, must be left to your OAvn judgments. It is for you 
to say whether it shall be passed over m- ithout, at least, a solemn 
remonstrance. If, by your silence now, you constitute such 
silence as a precedent, it may be for you to declare of what value 
hereafter shall be those high-sounding clauses in the Bill of 
Itights, in your own Constitution, to the citizens of New Jersey 

" That Bill of Eights was intended as the enunciation of certain 
general principles of free government, to serve as the landmark 
of liberty and law. Did 3'our present Senator in Congress, Mr. 
Ten Eyck, when he introduced it in your Constitutional Conven- 
tion, and his fellow-members, when they voted upon it, consider 
its clauses only as a mass of glittering generalities? And yet 
what else do they become, if any cabinet officer may, under one 
of these ' general warrants,' invade your State with an armed 
force, kidnap its citizens, and incarcerate them, beyond the limits 
of the State, at his sovereign will and pleasure, in one of the 
military fortresses of the Government? Surely, if such outrages 
are to be passed over in silence, and such acts done with impu- 
nity, then I do not hesitate to declare that your State Govern- 
ment is a farce, and the clauses in your Bill of Eights the most 
contemptible and wicked shams. 

"I speak earnestly, because I feel so. I have been made to 
know the insolence of arbitrary power. The most degraded 
criminals in any of your prisons could not have been treated as 
I have been, without an outer}- of indignation from every honest 
citizen in the State. I have been arrested without the form of 
legal warrant — condemned without the shadow of a trial, and 
punished by a degrading imprisonment of weeks, without, to 
this hour, knowing the nature and cause of the accusations 
against me. I know and appreciate my rights as a citizen of the 
United States, and as a citizen of the State of New Jersey; and 
no man shall invade and trample upon those rights with impu- 
nity, if there is any courage or sense of justice left in the com- 
munity. I envy not the heart, for it is corrupt, nor the brain, for 
it is diseased, that can attempt to approve, or by reason, justify 
such an atrocious act of arbitrary jtower as this. If such an 



JAMES W. WALL. 149 

act can be done in a republic without redress, and with the ap- 
proval of its citizens, then I know no difference between it and 
the vilest despotism upon earth, save that the latter is the most 
honest government of the two." 

Such, however, was the terrorism of the Federal Govern- 
ment, that the House of Assembly, although largely Demo- 
cratic, through the Chairman of its Judiciary Committee, 
Jacob Vannater, Esq., of Morris County, reported that '■'•it 
was not expedient" to take any action on this memorial, for 
fear the State Government might he brought into antago- 
nism to the acts of the Federal Government, which was a 
virtual and cowardly indorsement of arbitrary power. 

The next Legislature elected Mr. Wall United States Sena- 
tor, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. John R. Thomson, 
deceased, and during his short service in that body, his voice 
was heard in denunciation of the Emancipation Policy pro- 
posed to be pursued in the purchase* of the slaves of the State 
of Missouri by the Federal Government, and in opposition to 
the infamous Bill of Indemnity to screen the President and 
his subordinates from all the legal consequences of their un- 
constitutional and arbitrary acts. In this last speeoh he 
alluded in the following language to his imprisonment: 

"But who is it, that takes a retrospective glance over the stir- 
ring, awful history of the last two j^ears, but feels how the fine 
gold has grown dim beneath the tarnishing touch of the rude 
hand of despotic power. Those great, absolute rights of the 
citizen, which were intended to be be^'ond the reach of arbitrary 
influence, the right of personal liberty, of property, of free 
speech and a free press, rudely and ruthlessly violated. Of those 
absolute rights, during what was not inaptly called the 'Eeign 
of Terror,' thei-e was not one heart, that was not trampled upon 
by the Executive, or his subordinates ; and what was worse than 
all, evei-y assault that was made upon them was applauded to 
the echo by timid jurists, divines, and contract-hunting, renegade 
Democrats, whose cowardly hearts, either ran away with their 
better judgments, or who i-eallj' did not comprehend the very 
first principle of the Constitution under which they lived. Men 



150 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

were arrested and papers seized without warrant, or oath of 
probable cause ; prisoners were held without pi-esentment or 
indictment, denied a speedy and a public trial, carried away by 
force from the State or district where their offence, if any, must 
have been committed, and incarcerated for months, ay, for 
years, in the military Bastiles of this Government, and then sot 
free without being even informed of the nature and cause of the 
accusation against them, Evei-y constitutional outpost was 
driven in, and every personal guarantee of the citizen brushed 
away by a tyrannical Executive, as easily as cobwebs by the 
hands of a giant- 

"And this, Mr. President, by a Government professing it was 
fighting for the Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of 
the laws; for tliese at the outset of the war were the proud 
watch- words that glittered on your military standards. Doc- 
triaes were preached in high places directly at war with the fun- 
damental principles of this Government. The central power, 
under the bold pretence of preserving the Government, assumed 
a new and fearful energy, until men went about with 'bated 
breath and whispering humbleness,' not knowing where the next 
blow Avas to fall, or who was the next friend that was to be 
stricken down at their sides. Of these times, I may exclaim: 
^Quorum pars suL' 

" It was my lot, sir, to have felt the fierce grasp of arbitrary 
power, and within the damp, grated casemate of one of the 
Bastiles of this Government, to have discovered how helpless a 
thing is the citizen, who is deprived of those absolute rights, 
which, if they do not exist in your Constitution at all times, 
whether in peace or war, then 3'our Constitution is a delusion 
jvnd a snare. Having been arrested without cause shown, I was 
liberated in the same way, after enduring personal indignities 
which, to a high-spirited man, 'eat like iron into the soul;' and 
from the hour of my liberation up to this moment, when I stand 
upon this floor the representative of a sovereign State, I have 
been unable to ascertain what those charges were. I have in 
vain demanded of the proper Department what wei-e the charges 
against me, claiming the freeman's constitutional privilege 'to 
he informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, and to 
be confronted with tlie witnesses atcainst rae. 



JAMES W. WALL. 151 

"Great heavens! Mr. President, is it possible that such things 
can be, under a Constitution whose boast it has been that it was 
for the protection of the inalienable rights of man against oppres- 
sion ? If this boast has been in vain, then your Constitution has 
but a name to live, an outer seeming to beguile and deceive — 
it is but a dekision and a snare — it is the worthless husk, when 
the golden grain is gone — the now empty casket from which 
the jewel has been stolen. 

'* The liberty, sir, I claim, and those who act w^ith me upon this 
floor, under our Constitution, is not the liberty of licentiousness, 
but the liberty united with law, the liberty sustained with the 
law, and that kind of liberty we have ever supposed was gua- 
I'anteed to every man, rich or poor, high or low, proud or hum- 
ble, under all exigencies, whether in peace or in war, or the state 
in the fearful throes of civil strife. This is my lo3'alty, and that 
of my friends upon this floor — the allegiance, the devotion to 
organic law. I know no other loyalty, and will never bow my- 
self at the shrine of any other. In our republic, its Constitution 
declares : ' No citizen shall be deprived of his life, liberty, or pro- 
pert}-, without due process of law.' We may be made to part 
with all these by the power of the state; but that power must 
look well to it, sir, that, in its exercise, it does not transcend the 
limits within which it is appointed to move. If it does, it be- 
comes despotic, and then among men who know their rights, and, 
knowing them, dare to maintain them, resistance follows, as nat- 
urally as light succeeds darkness. If by a simple mandate, nay 
by the lightning's flash over the telegraphic wires, as was my own 
case, any cabinet officer, in States where the ])eople are obedient 
to law, and where the courts are open, may consign you or me 
for an indefinite time to the gloomy walls of a government 
fortress; then the same mandate, or despatch, only altered in its 
phraseology, may consign us immediately to the hands of the 
executioner, or deprive us of our properties, confiscating them to 
the state. If not, why not? The right to have our lives secure 
against interference without due process of law, is equally 
guaranteed in the same clause which protects our liberty and 
our property. These privileges can trace their lineage back to 
the grassy lawns of Eunnymede, where they were born many 
centuries ago. They were extorted then, and there, by the rebel- 



152 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

lious barons, and uttered in glowing language that has come 
down to us from the ages long ago, and is still sounding in our 
ears as the sweetest note ever sounded from the clarion of 
freedom. Listen, Senators, to its music, as it sounded 'strong, 
and without overflowing,' full in the ears of a tyrant king: 'i\^o 
freeman shall he seized or imj)risoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or in 
any way destroyed, nor will loe go ujwn him, or send rqyon him, excejjt 
by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.' Our fathers 
caught the inspired strain, and it was prolonged in that sonorous 
sentence I have quoted above from our own Constitution.'' 

Since Mr. Wall left the Senate, he has not been idle. He 
has been connected editorially with three daily Democratic 
journals, furnishing the chief editorial matter for all. 



HOI^. ROBERT ELLIOTT. 

HOK ROBERT ELLIOTT, one of the political pris. 
oners of 1861, is a citizen of Freedom, AValclo County, 
Maine. He is a gentleman in independent circumstances, 
and about fifty years of age. Having entered into the 
mercantile business in the town of Freedom, nearly thirty 
years ago, he readily acquired a competency by Lis energy 
and industry, and there continues to own and superintend 
an extensive stock in trade. By his intelligence and integrity, 
he has made himself very popular, particularly in his own 
town, where he has for the past twenty years continued to 
fill the most important ofiices. His elections by the people, 
have always been by large majorities, and not unfrequently 
by an unanimous vote. He at one time represented his dis- 
trict in the Legislature, and was also a member of the Gov- 
ernor's Council. 

In the latter part of the night of September 7, 1861, Mr. 
Elliott was aroused from his si ambers, at his residence in 
Freedom, by Chas. Clark, who was acting as Marshal for the 
State of Maine. The Marshal, after gaining admittance into 
the house, was quickly followed by ten or twelve men who 
had hitherto been invisible, having secreted themselves in 
the out-buildings, and under the fences, until their peculiar 
services were required. Not one of these men, it is proper 
to mention, resided in Waldo County. Mr. Elliott, thus sur- 
prised and surrounded at the hour of midnight, was ordered 
to dress and prepare himself to accompany Clark and his 
men ; receiving no other explanation of his untimely arrest, 
than that it was done by authority of a despatch from Simon 
Cameron, Lincoln's Secretary of "War. And long before his 
friends and neighbors had begun to break the stillness of the 

15.3 



154 AMEBIC AN BASTILE. 

morning, Mr. Elliott was far on his way to Fort Lafayette, 
a prisoner in the hands of his Government. Thus seized 
and carried away from his home, his family, and his friends, 
he was thrown into prison, where he remained nearly two 
months, without any charge having been preferred against 
him. Being unable to subsist on the rations furnished him 
here by the Government, because of their unwholesome 
nature, he united with other prisoners, and had suitable pro- 
visions furnished from ISTew York, at their own expense. 

From this noted Bastile he was conveyed to Fort Warren, 
and confined there one week. He was then unconditionally 
discharged on the 7th of jSTovember of the same year, without 
receiving intelligence from any official source, why the sanc- 
tity of his home had been invaded, and his personal liberty 
violated. Close confinement and its attendant horrors of 
impure atmosphere, and, for a portion of the time, unwhole- 
some diet, made serious inroads upon his health and strength, 
but failed to weaken his fidelity and adherence to Democratic 
principles, or to diminish his sense of the wrong and injury 
which had been inflicted upon him. 

During this vile and wicked persecution of his person for 
his political opinions, the Republican press of the country, 
under sanction of the Government at Washington, was 
filled with incendiary articles, false and libellous in their na- 
ture, calculated and intended to excite the prejudices and ill- 
feelings of the mob, not only against him, but other similar 
victims of political cruelty. And who can question the right 
of the masses to practise mob law, when Government officials 
lead the way, and establish the rule that might is right ? 

How successful they were in their teachings, can be farther 
seen in the destruction of Elliott's property by hirelings, 
desperate characters, and Government spies. During the 
night of August 16, 1863, his two barns, at the time well 
filled with hay, were fired, and the wind blowing in the pro- 
per direction, the flames were communicated to his dwelling- 
house and other buildings, including a large amount of pro- 
perty, all of which were entirely destroyed. The loss which 



KOBE ET ELLIOTT. '\ 00 

he sustained ■was very heavy, as only a small portion of the 
property was insured. He then built a large barn, at great 
expense, on the same site, and stored away in it more than a 
hundred tons of hay. But before the workmen had more 
than half completed the task of pressing it, and while Elliott 
was in Boston to arrano;e for the sale of it, in the ni^ht of 
December 31, 1866, the barn was set on fire, and it, together 
with the hay, hay-press, and other property of value, entirely 
consumed, llis loss, at this second fire, was also great, only 
al;)Out one-third of the property destroyed being covered by 
insurance. There can be no doubt that this diabolical treat- 
ment of Elliott, in his person and property, was nothing more 
or less than political posccution. 



REV. ROBERT DOUGLAS. 

FTIHE subject of this sketch, was one of eight brothers, dis- 
-'- tinguished for their height, their erectness, their hand- 
some personal appearance, and their manliness. The smallest 
of this fraternal band, was six feet one and a half inches tall 
— the largest, six feet four inches. Born in the northern 
part of Ireland, but of inmiediate Scotch descent, they were 
in physical stature and bearing the very type of the historic 
family of " Black Douglas," to which they belonged, and in 
their uncompromising spirit they seemingly embodied much 
of that courage and independesnce which kept the hills 'of 
Scotland so long free, and to whose keeping, in the person 
of James Douglas, Robert Bruce bequeathed his heart in 
trust. 

Robert Douglas \^as tall and stately, with dark complexion, 
black hair, brilliant dark hazel eyes, and a mouth denoting 
firmness of purpose ; which, added to the dignity of his car- 
riage, made up the measure of a very handsome man. In 
his boyhood he was conspicuous for his swiftness of foot, for 
daring horsemanship, and for various kinds of manly accom- 
plishments. In the northern part of Ireland, a ditch which 
was the scene of a fearful leap by him when a school-boy, 
still bears his name. Robert, full of the spirit of adventure, 
left home at the early age of sixteen, and parting from his 
father and mother, and brothers, he determined to seek that 
fortune and freedom in America which the oppression of Eng- 
land denies the youth of Ireland. Reared in comfort by a 
lather of respectable means, and cared for fondly by an atfec- 
fcionate mother, his natural independence and self-reliance 
had been nurtured and not smothered, and it must have been 
strong indeed when it impelled him to abandon the home he 

16G 



REV. EGBERT DOUGLAS. 157 

loved, to go so far away as America seemed then, and among 
a people to whom he was an entire stranger. But he came. 
Three of his brothers afterward followed him. Oae of them 
fell, it is believed, at Buena Vista, in command of a company 
of infantry ; another died of yellow fever. But two of the 
eight now remain : one in Mississippi, the other in Ireland. 

As soon as his feet touched the shores of the United States, 
Robert Douglas sought employment ; at first as a store-boy, 
afterward as a clerk, and then as a merchant. He was 
always busily occupied, and yet he did not neglect the culti- 
vation of his mind. He was a great reader of books, and 
held frequent intercourse with the muses. His poetical eftu- 
sions, which would have made a volume, and which disap- 
peared mysteriously a few years ago, doubtless by the incen- 
diary hands of their author, evinced an imagination of the 
chivalric and heroic kind rather than the sentimental. "Scot- 
land and Scottish Chiefs," the " Black Douglas," " Masters of 
Scottish Kings," Ireland and her wrongs, evidently occupied 
much of the young poet's thoughts. Although these poems 
as a whole were scarcely worthy of the press, sometimes his 
youthful pen, at the mention of the distant home and kin- 
dred from whom he was separated, would express the out- 
pourings of a warm and deeply moved heart, in very tender 
and beautiful verse. After a while, Mr. Douglas determined 
to prepare himself for the practice of law, a profession for 
which he was eminently adapted, and in which he must have 
attained the highest rank. In pursuance of this purpose, he 
commenced reading with his uncle, the Hon. Samuel Douglas, 
Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and continued in the 
preparation for nearly two years. He then suddenly con- 
cluded to turn his attention to the ministry, and gave up the 
study of law. As he was not a man of weak purposes, it is 
difficult to account for the change, and it is useless now to 
speculate upon it. He went to the Theological Seminary at 
York, Pennsylvania, and after a due season was admitted- to 
the ministry in the German Reformed Church. In this call- 
ing he continued literally to the day of his death, never 



158 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

neglecting an appointment nor a duty, and never wearying 
in well-doing. After having preached to a number of con- 
gregations, he removed in 1850, to his farm on the Potomac, 
in Washington County, Maryland, the birthplace of his last 
wife, who was the daughter of Colonel John Blackford. He 
did not, however, retire from the ministry, but undertook 
the charge of four different congregations. And as these 
were widely separated, his whole time was occupied in attend- 
ing to his parochial duties. Holding himself aloof from 
politics, he rarely went to the polls. 

AVhen the war burst over the Union in 1861, Mr. Douglas 
saw the horrors of it inaugurated, by the burning of the 
beautifuLbridge over the Potomac. War continued to pour 
blood freely over the land. Excitement and bitter feelings 
raged along the border. The troubled times and advancing 
age rapidly whitened the gray head of the preacher of the 
Gospel. Yet he willingly permitted no interruption to his 
duties ; he went his regular rounds, comforting the sick, 
burying the dead, and spreading the Gospel. But soon the 
iron hand of persecution was laid upon him ; sentinels and 
spies lurked about his house and dogged his footsteps. 

His sermons were reported, and the very prayers that he 
offered over the graves of those he buried were searched for 
words of treason. 

Before destruction began its red carnival with fire and 
blood in the valley of the Shenandoah, the torch was applied 
to his property, and one dark night his handsome barn blazed 
up against the heavens, casting an ominous glare over the 
Potomac, and then sank into ashes and a mass of ruins. 
The fences of his farm were in time taken down and burned, 
and his horses and cattle passed from his presence into the 
hands of the soldiers, to assist in the suppression of the Re- 
bellion. 

Mr. Douglas soon became a prisoner in his own house ; 
and if he walked out upon his land, he was either halted at 
his outer gate, or followed by a suspicious sentinel. His life 
became almost unendurable ; he was turned back when he 



REV. ROBERT DOUGLAS. 159 

went out to perform the last rites to tlie dying ; armed squads 
searched his house at the pleasure of each new commander : 
invading the chambers of his wife and daughters — looking 
through the contents of their bureaus and wardrobes, and 
turning their beds upon the floor with their bayonets ; each 
member of his family was insulted by the brutal soldiery ; 
and finally, he was ordered to close the shutters of all the 
windows that looked out upon Virginia. 

The battle of Sharpsburg was fought on the 17th of Septem- 
ber, 1862. The Confederate lines extended to within about 
three miles of the residence of Mr. Douglas, and their line 
of retreat, on the 19tli, into Virginia, M'as through his farm. 
The Federal army followed to the Potomac, was repulsed at 
Blackford's Ferry, and then stretched itself in camp along 
the river. One corps was encamped on Mr. Douglas's farm, 
" Ferry Hill Place," and immediately his fences, wheat, corn, 
and every thing destructible was swept away, until that 
beautiful plantation became as bald and unprotected as a 
common. 

All the crops of the season were taken without compensa- 
tion, and without the pretence of military seizure. Tents 
were pitched in the yard, cannon planted about the house, 
and the inmates were in a state of siege. The battle having 
increased the animosity among citizens of opposite sympa- 
thies, frequent reports were made to headquarters of the 
rank disloyalty of that " Old Rebel preacher " — that he was 
in underground and treasonable communication with the 
Confederate General ; and it was a subject of suspicion and 
complaint that one of his sons was on the personal staff of 
General " Stonewall " Jackson. It was a period credulous 
of evil report, and although the Federal ofiicers, to whom 
these reports were made, would have concluded upon a mo- 
ment's reflection that the scanty information of which Mr. 
Douglas, a prisoner in his own house, was possessed, would 
be of little value to the enemy, yet they acted in accordance 
with their prejudices. 

About the latter part of October, on a dark and rainy 



160 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

uight, one of the shutters, which had heeii kept closed by 
order, Avas forced open by the storm. Mrs. Douglas, in going 
to her chamber with a lamp, unfortunately passed by this 
window, and a slender stream of disloyal and sympathetic 
light was poured over the Potomac into the Confederacy. 
The watchful sentinel upon the bank of the river saw the 
terrible flash, and made haste to report to an eager officer 
that a signal lis-ht had been given from the house of that 
" Old Rebel." It was a grievous charge, and most grievously 
did Mr. Douglas answer for it. Here was treason, if not 
stalking abroad, at least alive and active in the camp of loy- 
alty. It must be soreh" punished. 

On the next evening, without warning or reason given, the 
venerable gentleman was taken from his home and family, 
and marched to the quarters of General Fitz-John Porter. 
He requested an interview with the General, but that was 
refused. This man, charged with disloyalty, had no rights 
which the Federal commander was bound to respect, and 
unheard, he was committed to the vulgar treatment of such 
soldiers as generally composed the provost guard. Had not 
such wrongs become common, it would seem both shameful 
and cruel that an aged gentleman of high social position, 
a minister of the Gospel, well known throughout all that 
country, should be dragged so suddenly from his famil}^ and 
condemned to prison, without an opportunity for explanation. 
And how simple was the explanation, and how easily refuted 
the charges upon which Mr. Douglas was arrested! General 
Porter thought little of the bitter draught he was forcing 
upon that unotlending civilian. Perhaps he thought of it 
afterward, when in retributive justice the poisoned chalice 
was commended to his own lips by that very Government in 
whose behalf he was doing the crqel wrong. The wheel was 
turning which was to drag General Porter down. 

"Though the mills of God grind slowly, 
Yet they grind exceeding small." 

The same evening of his arrest, Mr. Douglas was hurried 
on to Berlin, below Harper's Feriy. Here, in the open air, 



REV. ROBERT DOUGLAS. IGl 

without shelter or any covering but the cloak he wore, and 
forbidden the use of fire, the old prisoner passed that cold 
and dreary night upon the frozen ground, while his family, 
ignorant of the cause of his arrest or his fate, passed the same 
night in tearful grief and fear. But greater than all the 
prisoner's personal sufferings was the thought of the mani- 
fold trials and sorrows that his arrest would bring upon his 
family, left alone and unprotected in the midst of his ene- 
mies. It was to him a night of wrestling between outraged 
honor and the Christian forgiveness and forbearance which 
he had been wont to preach throughout the land. And 
when, after the long night, the light of day appeared again, 
it witnessed the sad spectacle of the white hair of the old 
man mingling with the snow that lay all about him. A 
second and a third night was spent in the same manner, ex- 
cept that a subordinate officer, whose heart was not steeled 
against compassion, declared his treatment was a disgrace^ 
and offered him one of his own blankets to lie upon. We 
care not to dwell upon the sorrows that were inflicted upon 
Mr. Douglas during these days, or the gloom and wretched- 
ness that prevailed in his household. After a few days he 
was taken before General Burnside, where the oath of alle- 
giance was offered him as the price of his release. This he 
declined, and demanded an investigation of the charges 
against him. Had he taken the oath under such circum- 
stances, he must first have crushed out the spirit of indepen- 
dence he inherited from his ancestors. His request was in 
turn disregarded, and he was hurried away to Fort McHenry. 
The fate of many who went within the w\alls of this Bas- 
tile suggests that over the gate should have been written, 
as over the entrance of Dante's Hell: 

" He wlio enter* here, leaves Lope behind.'' 

For a while after j\fr. Douglas reached Fort McHenry, he 
was shut up in what had been a horse-stable, with deserters, 
criminals in ball and chain, and prisoners of the lowest grade. 
Til all his experience, never had he seen such a mass of 
wretchedness, wickedness, and despair. A proper respect for 
11 



102 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

decency, forbids a iiiinute description of the scene in tlie 
midst of which he passed those miserable days and more 
miserable nights. And yet his age, appearance, and charac- 
ter had their effect even upon the wretches who surrounded 
him. They soon began to regard him with kindness and 
consideration. A fellow-prisoner thus describes Mr. Douglas's 
situation at this time and in this place : 

"A large number of prisoners, perhaps four hundred, occu- 
pied the hay-loft, and a larger number the stables below. 
After having seen Captain Barlow in regard to my quarters, 
and securing certain privileges for myself, he remarked to nne 
tliat they were having a lively time in the front stable. An 
old gray-haired man was in there preaching to the soldiers, 
and he seemed to understand his business. lie added that 
it was a bitter shame to have that old ("hristian gentleman 
in there, but that he could not help it. lie was cliarged with 
giving signal-lights to the rebels ; he (Captain B.) did not be- 
lieve it, but General Morris did, and there was no use in trying 
to get him out. He asked me to look through the bars and see 
if I knew the prisoner. He was holding service. At its con- 
elusion, I looked in and saw him seated upon a board, and 
when he arose and apju'oachod, I at once recognized him, 
and we shook hands. AVe had some conversation, and as we 
parted he said, (in a full, earnest voice,) ' They may put me in 
prison ; they may confine my body ; but they cannot imprison 
my spirit and my soul. I have plenty of work in here for 
my Mtister, and, by his grace, I intend to do it.' He con- 
stantly held prayer in that stable, and his fellow-prisoners, as 
far as I could ascertain, exorcised toward him the greatest 
affection and reverence." Soon after, hy the kindness of the 
Provost Marshal, Mr. Douglas was taken from the horse- 
stable and placed in somewhat more comfortable quarters, 
with his young friend and other state prisoners. 

The record of the imprisonment of Fort McIIenry is too 
W(^ll known to make it necessary to add that his exposure 
and sufferings were still great, too great for one of his age 
and failing health to endure very long. Awhile he remained 
with those kind gentlemen, they resolved that he should be 



E E V. ROBERT DOUGLAS. 163 

as tlieir guest, and should perform none of the duties of their 
prison-life. His health, however, rapidly declined. His white 
hairs became fewer ; the fire in his eye began to burn dimly, 
and his body fo bend. Alwa^^s unwell, at one time he was 
very ill. He attributed the beginning of his sickness to the 
severe cold he had caught when lying out upon the ground the 
several nights after his arrest. He grew weak and cold ; the 
poor covering of a quilt and a flimsy blanket were not suffi- 
cient to keep him warm. " He had prayers morning and 
evening with his room-mates. He prayed always for univer- 
sal humanity, for his enemies and his friends. His conversa- 
tion was mostly upon religious subjects, and thrice only he 
joined the little band in a war of wits." His illness increased, 
and at one time he thought he was dying. He said his spirit 
was strong enough, but his bodj^ Avas growing weak ; yet 
weak as his body became, his spirit never deserted him. 
The ladies of Baltimore, as usual, ministered kindly unto 
him, and did much to assuage his sufterings. To " Father 
Douglas," as they called him, they brought cheerfulness and 
material comfort. He had nothing to ofier in return but his 
blessings and his prayers. 

Havino; been in confinement about six weeks, Mr. Douo-las 
was brought before the Provost Marshal. By this gentleman 
he was treated with much courtesy, and he ascertained, after 
having undergone an examination, that there was no evi- 
dence against him, and that no written charges had ever 
been preferred. He had been arrested and impriso7ied on sus- 
picion., prejudice^ and the vaguest rumors. Feeble and sick, but 
the shadow of his former self, he was released and graciously 
permitted to return to his home. 

But imprisonment had done its fatal work. The seeds of 
disease had taken deep root, and they continued to grow. 
He resumed his parochial' duties, but he appeared among his 
people as one stepping along the confines of the grave ; and 
that deep-toned voice which they knew so well, and which 
had often thrilled them with its power, was weakened and 
unsteady. The succeeding years of war, bringing with them 
uew trials and difiiculties, aggravated Ids ailment. His sons 



164 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

were wounded in battle, and false rumors of their death 
reached his ears time and again. On one occasion, when he 
went to Hagerstown to seek for news of his eldest son, whose 
obituary he had read in the papers, he was not permitted to 
alight from his buggy, his horse was seized and turned toward 
home, and he was ordered to leave the town. These wrongs 
were too much for his proud soul and his failing health, and 
he fast grew wan and Aveary. A few years had done the 
usual work of a score. Mr. Douglas was spared to the min- 
istry for a few years longer, but nothing could arrest the 
fatal disease which had taken hold of him in Fort McHenry. 
He seemed to know that his end was approaching, but he 
continued his labors. His family entreated him to retire, 
and leave his unfinished work to others, but he replied that 
he would die at his post. He still hesitated in strange un- 
willingness to cease his ministerial lal)ors ; but, on the next 
Sunday, started to take leave of his people. At Mount 
Moriah he preached a morning sermon, which his devoted 
parishioners still speak of as full of truth, humility, and 
resignation. At Keedysville, on the same day, his congre- 
gation looked with surprise on his feeble frame, and listened 
attentively to the words which impressed them with more 
than usual solemnity. The venerable man seemed to be con- 
scious that he was speaking to them for the last time, and 
while they were silent, his earnestness rose for a time above 
his bodily weakness, and triumphed. The effort was too 
great : toward the end of his sermon his voice trembled and 
his sight grew dim, and at its close he sank exhausted into 
his seat. It was a solemn scene. He had spoken as Elijah 
might have spoken just as he was raised from earth to hea- 
ven. The people. disj)ersed, and their aged pastor was taken 
to the house of a friend, where he lay for several days, at- 
tended by his wife and physicians. He was then removed 
to his home, where, after lingering a few days longer, he, on 
the 20th of August, 1867, passed to God, untler whose ban- 
ner he had fought for more than thirty years, and faithfully 
even unto the end. 

A sentinel on the watch-tower of Zion, he fell at his post. 



CAPTAIN H. L. SHIELDS. 

pAPTAIN H, L. SHIELDS graduated at the United States 
^ Military Academy at A^^est Point, iu 1845, about the 
commencement of the Mexican "War. He served througli 
that war, was present in seven or eight battles, and was twice 
brevetted for gallant conduct. After the close of the war, 
he was attached for several years to Sherman's battery of 
light artillery, in the 3d Regiment. He afterward served 
under General AYool, as an aide-de-camp, and acting Judge 
Advocate of the Eastern Division of the United States Army. 
He resigned from the army in 1854, and in a few years there- 
after took possession of, and has occupied since then, a stock- 
raising farm, near Bennington, Vermont. 

One rainy morning iu October, 1861, while Captain Shields 
was engaged with his men in some out-of-door farm-work, 
a boy rode up from Bennington, (two miles distant,) and in- 
formed him that "some friends, who proposed going off in the 
cars in an hour, were anxious to see him before leaving. He 
immediately ordered his wagon, and, M-ithout waiting to 
change the rough dress he wore, drove rapidly to the village. 
On reaching the hotel he was shown into the parlor, where a 
man introduced himself as the United States Marshal for 
Vermont, at the same time informing the Captain that he 
had an order to arrest him, and take him to Fort Lafayette. 
Captain S. was greatly astonished, and inquired who issue<l 
the order. The Marshal replied, "The Secretary of State." 
The order was signed by the Assistant Secretary of State. 
After a few moments' reflection, the Captain expressed his 
willingness to accompany the Marshal, but requested him to 
go with him to his residence, that he might get some cloth- 
ing. This he refused to do, remarking that he had no time 

165 



16G AMERICAN B A STILE. 

to lose. The Marshal escorted him to the cars, while a posse 
with the Sheriff of the county proceeded to his house, and 
demanded of his wife his letters and papers. They enter- 
tained themselves for an hour, in examining private papei's 
and letters, hoping, no doubt, to find " treasonalle corre- 
spondence^^' hut in this they were disappointed. The Marshal 
in the mean time took the Captain to Fort Hamilton, where 
he was turned over to Colonel Martin Burke, United States 
Army, who had been his commander in Mexico. 

Thence he was taken to Fort Lafayette, and placed in a 
casemate in which there were numerous heavy guns. This 
casemate was occupied by some twenty or thirty " prisoners 
of state." The greater portion of these were prominent 
members of the Legislature of the State of Maryland. They 
comprised the enti)-e Democratic repirsentation from that body. 

Sick and well were alike crowded together in these damp, 
illy ventilated and unhealthy casemates. The listless ennui 
of prison-life, the grating and heavy iron doors, the bars 
and chains, the poor fare, the tyranny of the officers, the 
brutality of the ignorant guards, and the longing for home 
and friends contributed much to sow the seeds of disease 
in man}^ of the prisoners. On entering the Fort, Captain 
S. (like all who were its inmates) was divested of his money, 
arms, and valuables. He was permitted to join a mess of 
other prisoners, who had two meals served each day, for 
which they paid one dollar each per diem. The prisoner 
who had no money fared badly. " The food," says Captain 
Shields, " which, if well cooked, would have been wholesome 
and sufficient, was wretchedly served up by the same inex- 
perienced recruits who guarded the Fort." About the first 
of IS^ovember an order came to remove the state prisoners 
to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor. Many rejoiced at the 
change, as that Fort was known to be larger, the accommo- 
dations for quarters better, and because Colonel Justin Limick, 
an old officer, was known to be a Christian and a gentle- 
man, as well as a thorough soldier. 

"We again quote from Captain S. : " We bade adieu to Fort 



CAPTAIN H. L. SHIELDS. 1G7 

Lafayette in the moruing, and, after hours of unnecessary 
delay, we re-embarked at Fort Columbus, on board the 
steamer 'State of Maine.' On this boat, which 3'ears before 
was considered unseaworthy and unsafe in a gale, without 
accommodations for sleeping and no preparations for feeding 
so many men, were huddled together about one hundred 
' state prisoners,' several hundred military prisoners, and 
United States troops as a guard. Fortunately the weather 
was propitious, and on the evening of the third day we landed 
on the wharf at Fort Warren. General Dimick and his com- 
mand (a Massachusetts regiment) did, apparentl}'', all they 
could to make us comfortable, although he had been in- 
structed to j>repare for only one hundred 'state prisoners.' 
At Fort Warren more liberty was granted us for exercise, 
and the fare was vastly better, while General D. was at all 
times approachable, and anxious to do all he could, consistent 
with safety, to make us comfortable." 

Captain Shields was discharged from the Fort without 
trial, and is still ignorant of the cliarge upon which he was 
arrested and imprisoned. All the money he had handed 
over to the commandant at Fort Lafayette was " absorbed 
in some waj'," and but for the kindness of General Dimick 
in furnishing him with funds with which to reach his home, 
lie would have been a sojourner in Boston, among strangers, 
and without monej' or friends. 

It will be perceived by this unjust imprisonment of Cap- 
tain Shields, that it made no difference with the Adminis- 
tration of Mr. Lincoln in what capacity a man had served 
his country; if he did not openly support the " Government," 
he was at the mercy of sjjies, informers, and United States 
Marshals, whose actions were ahva^-s indorsed by the Admin- 
istration, whether right or wrong. 



WAREElv" J. EEED. 

TTT^K^E^ J- P^EED was Lorn near the village of "VYliite- 
'^ lysburg, in Kent County, Delaware, on the 22d day 
of August, 1836. His father dying when the suhject of this 
sketch was but fourteen years of age, and he being cast 
upon the world so young and destitute of means, his edu- 
cation was necessarily limitecL At his majority he engaged 
in business on his own account in his native village, which 
proved unprofitable for the young merchant after a continu- 
ance of three years. 

Having diligently applied himself to study during his 
leisure hours, his mind was much improved, and an oppor- 
tunity presenting itself, he commenced teaching school, and 
was thus employed at the time of his arrest. At the breaking 
out of the late war, he was commissioned, by Governor Bur- 
ton, Justice of the Peace for Murderkill Hundred, Kent 
County. 

Having from his youth taken an active part in politics, being 
a firm advocate of the State Rights doctrine as enunciated by 
Jefierson, his outspoken defence of free speech and his bold 
denunciation of the tyrannical arrests of the Administration 
made him obnoxious to the Radicals of Delaware ; and his 
galling invectives against their little co-workers in that 
State, furnished a sufiicient pretext, if any were needed, for 
his arrest, wdiich took place in September, 1862. He was at 
the time teaching school in Murderkill Hundred. During 
school-hours, two men — a Sergeant Johnson, of New York, 
and a Mr. Helverson, a private soldier in a Delaware regi- 
ment — stepped into the school-room and incpiired if Mr. 
Reed was present. AVhen informed that he was, they pro- 
ceeded to make known their business, by first displaying 
their arms — the one a sabre and nmsket, the other a revol- 
ver. Then informing him that he was their prisoner, they 

108 



WAEEEX J. KEED. 169 

ordered him to immediately dismiss tlie school. Permission 
to visit liis home that he might obtain some money and ne- 
cessary articles was refused him, although the distance was 
only a mile. 

He was then quickly placed in a carriage and hurriedly 
driven to Felton Station, on the Delaware Railroad. Arriving 
there, they conducted him to a hotel, with the intention of 
placing him in close continement ; but upon the intercession 
of some friends, this rigorous treatment was so tar mitigated 
as to permit him to remain in a room below, with a soldier 
by his side. When the AYilmington train arrived he was 
placed on it, and one of the soldiers who had made the arrest 
took a seat beside him, while the other, who had been joined 
by a companion, took his seat in the rear. 

Arriving at Wilmington at 9 o'clock p.m., he was taken 
from the train by a squad of soldiers and marched through 
several streets to a hotel, where he was placed in a small, 
filthy room in the fourth story, the door carefully locked, 
and a squad of soldiers placed in the passage-way. After 
these precautions, the prisoner was deemed safe for the night. 
Safe he might be, but as for sleep, he could obtain none, the 
bedbugs and fleas having taken undisputed possession of the 
room. They considered their right prior to his, and looking 
upon him as an intruder, prepared to welcome him in any 
other than a complaisant manner. They immediately com- 
menced an attack upon him, in which they battled earnestly 
for their rights, stoutly contending for eveiy inch of territory 
until daylight, when they retired in good order, expecting 
to renew the attack the next night. The soldiers, too, were, 
in the passage, engaged in frequent broils, mingled with oaths, 
which sounded hideously during the long hours of the night. 
Morning came at last, and with it some relief. Breakfast 
was furnished the prisoner about 7 o'clock a.m., of which he 
was much in need. 

Soon after, he was taken into the presence of Colonel A. H. 
Grimshaw, commanding a Delaware regiment, a man of low 
and sordid nature, who, feeling that he was " dressed in a 



170 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

little brief authority," determined to display it. The prisoner, 
supposing that he was to have a trial, demanded the charges 
against him, and was informed by the ^^d/^ Colonel, in a voice 
scarcely audible, that it was all right, or something like that. 
Mr. Reed wondered if he were still in the Diamond State 
of Delaware, or had been transported to Turkey, and whether 
he was in the presence of an United States officer, or a 
Cadi of Constantinople. The proceedings seemed to favor 
the latter, as the laws of Delaware accord to every accused 
person an examination, face to face with his accusers, the 
privilege of counsel for his defence, compulsory process for 
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and a speedy and impartial 
trial by a jury of his peers; all of which were violated in his 
person. Instead of a trial, he was commanded to stand against 
the wall, and there underwent the formula similar to that 
practised on all condemned culprits, namely, the registering 
of his height, color of eyes, hair, complexion, occupation, 
age, residence, etc., which was done with the greatest preci- 
sion. While anxiously waiting to see what the next thing 
would he, his ears were greeted with the cry from the out- 
side of the building, " All ready ! " which being responded 
to in the affirmative, he, with two others of the prisoners, 
was placed in a carriage and started for where they knew 
not, until their arrival at Delaware City, at about 2 o'clock 
P.M., when all doubt as to their destination was removed. 
As a special act of kindness, they were permitted to obtain 
some food at the hotel, after which a small boat was obtained, 
and the order given to take them across the channel to the 
Fort. 

The wind was blowing hard at the time, and the water 
was so rough that the boatmen deemed the passage too dan- 
gerous to attempt, and did not wish to go. 

But the officer in command ruled otherwise, and Mr. Reed 
and three or four others were placed in the boat and passed 
safely over to the Fort, where they arrived about dark, and 
were immediately ushered into the headquarters of the com- 
mandant, Major H, S, Burton, a gentlemanly officer, who in 



WAEREN J. REED. 171 

a few weeks after was relieved of his command for strictly 
obeying orders from Washington, as will be seen in the 
sequel. The Major not being in the Fort at the time, the 
command devolved upon a subordinate officer, who placed 
them in a room about forty feet in length, by twenty feet in 
breadth, in the second story of the barrack, with a guard at 
the door. 

It being bedtime, they lay down on the floor. Mr. Reed 
was fortunate enough to find a small piece of broken box, 
which answered for a pillow, and, with no covering save the 
clothing he wore, fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. Awak- 
ing at daybreak, before the rest of the prisoners were astir, 
he arose and took a survey of the room. Here burst upon 
his view a sight never, it is to be hoped, again to meet the 
eyes of an American citizen. Stretched lengthwise upon the 
floor lay three rows of prisoners, each covered with his 
blanket. That made his bed. In all there were about twenty- 
five or thirty men — Americcfn freeincn. They were all politi- 
cal prisoners. Isot one of them had had a trial or was even 
charged with a crime. All were the victims of despotic 
power. He stood for some time contemplating the scene 
before him, and finally sat down, and, like Ludlow and Syd- 
ney, mourned the lost liberties of his country. 

The walls of the room had been plastered but a short 
time previously, which, considering the chill air of September 
and October without fire, made the situation of the prisoners, 
not only uncomfortable, but unhealthy. 

At meal -times they were marched about two hundred yards 
to an old tent, where the Confederate prisoners were fed, and 
sometimes the march was scarcely necessary, as upon several 
occasions they were handed only a slice of bread in the 
morning, with neither meat nor coftee, and compelled to sub- 
sist upon that the whole day. 

At other times they received in addition, for dinner, a tin- 
cup of bcan-VKiter^ in many instances not having a single bean 
or any other vegetable in it. This food, to men accustomed to 



172 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

the comforts of home and of substantial living, icas starvation 
diet, and all the prisoners showed the effects of it. 

After nearly a month of confinement in the Fort, Mr. 
Reed was discharged through the intercession of his friends 
w^hose frequent applications for his release, to the Secretary 
of War, Edwin M. Stanton, at last induced that official to 
issue an order for his discharge. At the same time, George 
P. Fisher, a Representative of the State of Delaware, but 
now on the bench of the Supreme Court of the District of 
Columbia, together with the enrolling officer, John Green, 
and two other persons, addressed letters to Major Burton, 
imploring him to hold the prisoner at all liazards and upon 
their responsibility, until they could get the order for his 
release rescinded, assigning as a reason that the election was 
near at hand, and they deemed it absolutely necessary that 
he be detained, as his release would have a damaging effect. 
Major Burton paid no attention to their request, but released 
Mr. Reed, and for his temerity was, on the Monday following, 
relieved of the command of the Fort, and not given another 
for fifteen months. 

Mr. Reed arrived at home on Sunday morning, having 
been confined nearly a month, much to the detriment of his 
health. Being arrested to gratify the malice of his political 
enemies, and having been foiled in their attempt to keep him 
incarcerated, it is not to be supposed that party vengeance 
would stop at one outrage. 

]S«^or did it. In June, 1863, while at dinner, he was again 
made prisoner by a detachment of eight cavalrymen, com- 
manded by Sergeant Wilson, and acting under orders of 
Colonel Edwin Wilmer — since convicted of appropriating to 
his private purposes the moneys paid by drafted men for 
procuring substitutes, and sentenced to the Albany State Pen- 
itentiary for ten years; but the sentence never having been 
carried into execution, he is now living in luxury in Wil- 
mington, Delaware. 

At the time of his second arrest, he, together with his 
familj', was grossly insulted. The officer in command of 



W A R R E N J. R E E D. 1 



iO 



the squad remarked that, if he had his way, he would hang 
all such men, and several other remarks of a similar nature. 

Mr. Eeed was taken to the Fulton Station, and was com- 
pelled to walk by the side of the cavalrymen, until a friend 
kindly took him in his carriage. At the Station he was 
placed under guard until the train arrived, and was after- 
ward conveyed to Smyrna, the headquarters of Colonel 
Wilmer. At Smyrna he marched through the streets, which 
was very fatiguing, as the day was quite warm, and placed 
in a small dirty room, in the old Quaker church, which had 
not been used for years, and consequently contained its accu- 
mulation of filth. Here he spent the night, with nothing to 
lie upon, or anything necessary for his corafort, nor did he re- 
ceive any of the necessary articles until some friends kindly 
furnished them. He was refused the privilege of going out 
to attend the calls of nature durino; his confinement of ei^ht 
weeks, his door being constantly guarded by a soldier with 
a drawn sabre. 

At the expiration of the above-mentioned period, he was 
taken into the office of Colonel lYilmer, and questioned as 
to his political opinions, and was told that he could go home, 
as there was no charge against him ; thus clearly proving that 
both were partisan arrests. 

Mr. Reed still holds the office of Justice of the Peace, and 
is also Xotary Public and Commissioner of Deeds. He is 
again in the mercantile business, with fair prospects of suc- 
cess. Being a sober and steady young man, energetic in 
business and courteous in demeanor, he is held in high esti- 
mation by his neighbors. 



ISRAEL BLAJTCHARD. 

TSRAEL BLANCIIARD was born on the 4th day of June, 
-»- 1825, near Mount Morris, Livingston County, Isew York. 
At the age of seventeen he commenced the study of medicine 
in his father's office, near Buffalo, lie graduated and received 
the degree of M.I), from the Botanic Medical College of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, in February, 1847. On his return from college 
he commenced the practice of medicine in Erie County, New 
York, in which he continued until the spring of 1850, when, 
in company with many others, he left his home with the in- 
tention of going to California, by the Texas overland route. 
Soon after arriving in Texas, he was taken violently ill with 
inflammatory rheumatism, which prevented him from travel- 
ling for the ensuing few months. LTpon his recovery, (his 
companions having all left him,) he remained in Texas until 
1852, when he left that State, and settled in the town of 
Carbondale, Jackson County, Illinois. 

Here he resumed the practice of his profession, which he 
continued until the fall of 18G0. At that time, owing to 
general debility, induced by the arduous labors of his profes- 
sion, he removed to Murphysboro', the county seat of Jackson 
County, Illinois, and commenced the study of the law. 

The following spring he was admitted to the bar, and has 
since continued to practise in that profession with ability and 
success. During the summer of 1861 the clamor of war re- 
sounded through the land. The city of Cairo was filled with 
Federal troops ; Big Muddy Bridge, on the Illinois Central 
Railroad, in Jackson County, was strongly guarded, and vol- 
unteers by the thousands were rushing forward to fill up the 
ranks of the Federal army. The 18th Regiment of Illinois 
Volunteers, known as the " infamous 18th," was then sta- 

174 



ISRAEL BLANCHAED. 175 

tioiied at the town of Anna, on the Illinois Central Railroad. 
This regiment afterward became notorious for its robl)eries 
and murders of women and children. 

In August, 1862, while riding in his buggy, in the streets 
of Carbondale, Illinois, he was met by iive men, who pre- 
sented cocked revolvers at his head, and commanded him to 
surrender. Considering discretion the better part of valor, 
he did so, and was taken into custody. 

When the Captain of the squad who had thus unceremo- 
niously arrested him, was asked by Blanchard to show his 
authority for the arrest, he pulled out his revolver, presented 
it at his head, and replied : " There is my authority." He was 
then taken to Big Muddy Bridge and placed in the guard- 
house, to await the Cairo train, which passed down at dark. 

Immediately a despatch was sent to the Colonel of the 18th 
Regiment, stationed at Anna, twenty-five miles distant, 
stating that Blanchard was in custody, and would pass on 
the ten-o'clock down train. 

When the train arrived at Big Muddy Bridge, Blanchard, 
with a guard of five men, was placed on it for Cairo. At 
ten o'clock the train arrived, and stopped at Anna. The 18th 
Regiment was drawn up in line on the platform of the depot. 
When the train stopped they gave three cheers for General 
Prentiss, and immediately afterward three groans for Dr. 
Blanchard. 

The cry was then raised, "J(r,/.-e Blanchard out and hang 
him." Some of the soldiers attempted to enter the car, but 
were prevented by the conductor telling them that Blanchard 
was in the forward car. A rush was then made for the for- 
ward car, but not finding him there, they were returning to 
the rear car, when the train started. As the train moved 
oif, the windows of the rear car were smashed in, but the 
guard presented bayonets, and thus prevented the soldiers 
from clambering in the windows until the cars were beyond 
their reach. The prisoner was then taken to Cairo and 
handed over to General Prentiss, who, after exacting and 
receiving his parole of honor that he would not escape, 



176 AMEEICAX BASTILE. 

allowed him the privilege of the city, and required him to 
report at his office every day, until witnesses could be sum- 
moned against him. 

Blancliard was kept at Cairo four days, when all the wit- 
nesses which had been summoned against him having ap- 
peared, an examination was had before General Prentiss. 

The charges preferred were, that he had spoken disrespect- 
fully of President IJneoln,, discouraged enlistment, and at- 
tempted to raise a company to burn Big Muddy Bridge. 

To the first charge he pleaded '■'' (juiHi/," but denied the 
others. Witnesses wei*e examined who swore that his con- 
versation had a tendency to discourage enlistments. 

"Whereupon General Prentiss sent him in charge of a lieu- 
tenant to the United States Marshal at Springfield, Illinois. 

The Marshal refused to receive him, and returned him 
under guard to General Prentiss at Cairo. He was then 
immediately liberated by the General and sent home, Avhere 
he remained, continuing the practice of the law until his 
second arrest. 

In the latter part of July, 1S63, while walking the streets 
of Murphysboro', he was accosted by a man in the uniform 
of a captain of volunteers, who inquired if his name was 
Blanchard. Being answered in the affirmative, the captain 
requested him to accompany him to the hotel, which he did. 
Upon entering the bar-room of the hotel he was surrounded 
by five men, having muskets with fixed bayonets. 

The captain then informed him that he had been ordered 
by the United States Marshal to arrest and convey him to 
Centralia on the next day; that it was a very unpleasant 
duty to perform, but he was bound to obey " orders." 

Upon signifying his readiness to accompany the officer he 
was allowed an hour in which to prepare for his departure. 

At the expiration of that time, all being in readiness, he 
was taken in a carriage to Carbondale, and thence to Be 
Soto, on a hand-car. Here the captain allowed him to remain 
on parole over night, to meet him at the train at six o'clock 
in the morning. He met the officer punctually and went 



ISRAEL BLAX CHARD. 177 

with him to Centralia. "While in the custody of this officer, 
Captain Howard, he was treated in the most gentlemanly 
manner. At Centralia he -was delivered over to one Major 
Board, Deputy United States Marshal, who immediately con- 
fined him in a room with some ten or twelve other prisoners, 
to await the arrival of the Springfield train. 

~When the train was heard approaching, handcuffs were 
produced, the prisoner driven into one corner of the room, 
surrounded b3^ a squad of soldiers with fixed bayonets, and 
handcuffed like convicted felons. They were then placed in 
a private car and taken to the camp at Springfield, where 
they were detained for two days. 

After the expiration of two days, United States Marshal 
D. S. Phillips appeared, took Dr. Blanchard, and several 
others, and put them on a train and started for Washington ; 
where, on their arrival, they were immediately consigned to 
the Old Capitol prison. 

Here he remained for six weeks. Mr. "Wood, the superin- 
tendent of the prison, generally treated his prisoners well, 
with the exception of fare. After he had. been incarcerated 
about three weeks, the Illinois prisoners (about twenty in 
number) were placed in a room to themselves, and allowed to 
buy their own provisions. 

From that period until the Illinois prisoners were dis- 
charged, they passed their time as well as men could who 
were kept in close confinement. 

After having been imprisoned for six weeks, Blanchard, in 
company with five others, was taken before the Judge Ad- 
vocate, when the following conversation ensued : 

Judge Adv^ocate. What is your name? 

Answer. Israel Blanchard. 

Judge Advocate. Where are you from? 

Answer. From Illinois. 

Judge Advocate. What are you in prison for? 

Answer. I do r\ot know. 

The Judge then arose, went to a desk, and took out a 
12 



178 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

bundle of papers, and after looking over them, again turned 
to the prisoners: 

Judge Advocate. Do you belong to the Knights of the 
Grolden Circle? 

Answer. 1 am not acquainted with any such organization. 

Judge Advocate. Have you ever belonged to any secret or- 
ganization ? 

Answer. I have belonged to the Odd Fellows, and the Sons 
of Temperance, and 1 once joined something that was called the 
Know-Nothings. 

Judge Advocate. I do not mean that: do you belong to any 
political organization. 

Answer. I do : I belong to the Democratic organization. 

Judge Advocate. Where do you meet? 

Answer. We usually meet at the Court House, in Murphys- 
boro', Illinois. 

Judge Advocate. Do you meet at night, or in the daytime? 

Answer. Sometimes we meet at night, and sometimes in day- 
time. 

Judge Advocate. Do you have any secret signs or pass- 
words by which you are admitted ? 

Answer. We have none. 

Judge Advocate. What do yon do there when you meet? 

Answer. We appoint committees for diffei-ent purposes, at- 
tend to our own political business, and concoct measures to beat 
the Republicans at the election. 

Judge Advocate. Were you, in June last, at a meeting of the 
Golden Circle, near Pincknej'ville, Perry County. Illinois? 

Answer. I was not ; I have not been in Perry County in two 
years, except to pass through it on the cars. 

Question by Blanchard. Judge, I would like to see those 
papers, or would like to have you tell me who has made com- 
plaint against me, and what the charges are? 

Answer by Judge Advocate. We have made it a rule not 
to let prisoners see the papers filed against them, nor to tell them 
who made complaint against them, or what ti^e charges are, as 
it might lead to unpleasant consequences hereafter. 

This ended the examination, anel he was immediately di&- 



ISRAEL BLANCHAED. 179 

charged, without knowing why he was arrested and im- 
prisoned, what the charges were against him, or who made 
them, if any were ever made. He was furnished with trans- 
portation, and permitted to return home. 

Arriving at home, he was immediately nominated by the 
Democratic party for State Senator, for the Third Senatorial 
District of the State of Illinois, and was in the following 
JSTovember elected hy 3,000 majority. 

On the first Monday of January, 1864, he took his seat in 
the State Senate, and served the people well and faithfully 
during that stormy session of the Illinois Legislature. After 
the close of the session, in March, 1864, he returned to his 
home at Murphysboro', Illinois, where he is busily engaged 
in the practice of his profession, and still continues to be a 
sterling advocate of the principles of Liberty and Free Gov- 
ernment. 



de:n'^'is iiickey. 

AMO^G the many other victims of despotism confined in 
Fort Lafayette was a poor Irishman, named Dennis 
Hickey. 

lie was apprehended in his potato patch, in Chester County, 
Pennsylvania. He was not permitted to go to his house in 
order to procure a decent suit of clothes ; hut was taken in 
his dirty and torn shirt and pants, and crownless old straw- 
hat, and lodged in Fort Lafayette as a political prisonei\ 
Poor fellow 1 he seemed to feel that he was like a " cat in a 
strange garret." The idea that this poor lahoring-man could 
he dangerous to an Administration with nearly a million of 
soldiers, seemed more like one of Lincoln's jokes than a real- 
ity. The charge against him was, that he would not turn 
informer upon his Democi-^tic neighhors. 

It seems that some Republicans in his neighborhood wished 
to find evidence that certain Democrats in that locality had 
discouraged enlistments. They wanted Dennis Hickey to 
tell what he knew about them. "/ did not come to this 
eountry to turn informer^'' was his indignant answer ; and for 
this honest, manly, Irish sentiment he was seized, and con- 
signed to Fort Lafayette. 

The other prisoners sympathized deeply with poor Dennis, 
and contributed from their own clothing to dress him in a 
decent suit until he could supply himself from home. After 
some six weeks of confinement in tlie Fort, without any 
trial, Dennis was discharged upon taking the oath, or as it 
was called in the Fort, ^'■kissing Lincoln'' s great toe.'" 

The following letter, written by Mrs. Dennis Hickey to 
her husband, while he was a prisoner in Fort Lafayette, re- 
veals the position and honest character of poor Hickey, and 

180 



DENNIS HICKEY. 181 

the insuffieienc}' of the reasons assigned for his arrest. It is 
as follows : 

"New London, Sept. 21, 18G2. 
"Dear Dennis: I take the present opportunity of writini^ 
these few lines to you, hoping that they may find you as well a.** 
they leave me and the children. Thanks to God, I receivQd your 
first letter on the 5th, and was glad to hear that you were alive. 
Then I made no delay, but sent you, as you told me, John Mul- 
lin's carpet-bag, and it full of clothes, and a letter with five dol- 
lars. I sent them on Monday, the 8th, by express, and had to 
pay a dollar for them. I was full sure you had got them by this 
time. Eobert Kelton gave me a receipt for them, and I want 
you to get some one to see if thoy are there, and if they ain't, 
please write to me soon again, so I may look after them. I did 
not know any one there to direct in care of, so I directed them 
to 'Dennis Hicke}^ Fort Lafayette.' Dear Dennis, I was.very 
uneasy then, until I received your second letter, on Saturday, the 
20th, which gave me great pleasure to know that you were still 
alive, for I thought, to be sure, you were killed. Dear Dennis, I 
cannot tell you how much trouble I have been in about you, 
since you have been stole away. I set up all that night waiting 
for 3^ou, expecting you home, and as soon as I seen the first peep 
of day, I went to Xew London and inquired if there had been 
such men there, and they told me they did not see them. I was 
sure they had taken you out in the woods somewhere and killed 
you, until Peter Mungen told me you had been arrested, and was 
in the jail of Philadelphia ; but I did not know what it was for 
until I got a letter from one of the officers that took you, stating 
that you had been arrested by order of the War Department, and 
wouRi be sent to Washington. I was told that they were very 
well paid for stealing yoa. The neighbors were opposed to your 
being kidnapped in that way. Then I got a petition wrote, and 
the neighbors signed that — allowing that they had never, in 
conversation with you, heard you say anything against the 
North. We are going to send that to the Commander-in-chief 
of Fort Lafayette. The enemies have put it in the paper that 
you abused Joel Conrad when he came to enroll your name; but 
Joel Conrad denied that in the paper, and said that Dennis 
Hickrv was a'' civil a man a«i he nu^t with. All mv trouble is 



182 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

about 3'ou, that I do not know how you are treated there. Write 
to me as soon as you get this, and tell me if I went there would 
1 be allowed to see you. It grieves me very much to have you 
taken away in your dirty clothes; and did j^ou not get any 
change of clothes since you were stole away? I cannot rest and 
content myself and have you be there; but putting my trust in 
Almighty God that you will soon be home. John Mullin's arm 
is getting better, and he has been working here since you were 
stolen away. We got the potatoes out, and Elijah Thompson 
drilled the wheat in yesterday ; Elijah threshed the wheat and 
the oats. The neighbors are all well. Joel Conrad, James Mich- 
ener, and a good many others have gone to Harrisburg and 
Chambersburg at the call of the Governor. So no more at 
present, but remain yours truly until death. 

'Ellen Hickey." 

Can anytliing be more touching and trutlifal than this re- 
cital of wrongs perpetrated upon these poor but honest peo- 
ple? Poor woman, well might she think that her husband, 
who had been thus ruthlessly stolen from his potato patch, 
had been '■'■kilt intirely.'" Shame upon an Administration 
that could thus invade the poor man's sanctuary ! 



KEY. JUDSOX D. BEIv^EDICT. 

REV. JUDSOX D. BENEDICT is about sixty-one years 
of age, of fine physical and intellectual appearance. He 
is a minister of the Gospel, of the Camphellite persuasion, 
and was horn and reared in the State of Vermont. He had 
not voted for fifteen years prior to his arrest, which took 
place at his residence in East Aurora, Erie County, "New 
York, September 2, 1862. 

On Sunday, the 31st of August, he preached a farewell 
sermon to his congregation at Aurora, which numbered some 
three or four hundred persons. His text was taken from 
"Christ's Sermon on the Mount." The objectional part 
of the sermon was the fact, that he had given it as his 
opinion that the command of the Isew Testament was ex- 
plicit that Christians should not engage in wars of any kind. 
He referred to the Constitution of the State of New York, 
which granted military exemption to Quakers, and said he 
saw no reason why his brethren should not obtain like im- 
munity. 

If such were not granted in the case of a draft, he advised 
his brethren not to resist it, but rather, as law-abiding citi- 
zens, to submit cheerfully to any penalty the law might im- 
pose. He said that there was no binding rule of the church ; 
that a majority of its members held a different opinion ; and 
that the subject was one for every man to decide for himself, 
according to his understanding of the word of God. On 
IVfonday, a complaint was made to Deputy IVfarshal A. G. 
Stevens, that Rev. Mr. Benedict had uttered seditious lan- 
guage "tending to discourage enlistments," and requesting 
him to come to Aurora and obtain the proof. 

Mr. Stevens went to Aurora on Monday night. At a 

183 



184 A M E K I C A X B A S T I L E. 

private lioiise tliat niglit aud the next morning he took the 
atfidavits of four persons, neither of whom were members of 
Mr. B.'s elmreh. The contents of these affidavits are to this 
(hiy unknown, the ^Marshal having repeatedly refused to fur- 
nish the prisoner or his counsel with copies of them. During 
the preceding winter, tlie Rev. George B. Cheever preached 
a sermon at the Cliurch of the Pilgrims, in Xew York, to 
about two tliousand people, and published the same, in which 
he insisted tliat the policy of the President, in prosecuting 
the war, was to restore tlie Union as it was, and tliat, if suc- 
cessful, it. would leave slavery unabolished ; that therefore no 
Christian, in any way, could give aid to the Administration 
in the prosecution of the war against the rebels, without 
sinning against God. Although listened to by many leading- 
citizens who favored the Administration, and disapproved 
by them, none ever thought that Mr. Cheever could be 
arrested for the sentiments he had expressed. Yet it was a 
strong denunciation of the war, and tended more toward 
discouraging enlistments, delivered as it was in a city, and 
before five times the number of people, than any sentiment 
contained in the sermon which caused the arrest of Pev. Mr. 
Benedict. 

On the supposed evidence contained in these (mute) affi- 
davits. Marshal Stevens arrested Mr. Benedict at his resi- 
dence, before breakfast, on Tuesday morning, September 2. 
lie took him to Buffalo, and contined him in the guard- 
house at Fort Porter, with other political prisoners as com- 
panions in tribulation. Mr. Benedict says: "One was a 
' wild Irishman,' of no possible utility but to cut bog and 
consume bad whiskey ; the other, an old German of some 
seventy years of age, who could not speak three words of the 
English language ; and the third a crazy man by the name 
of Clark, whose business appeared to be selling 'wooden nut- 
megs' and other Xew England indispensables.-'" They had 
all been arrested for " using language tending to prevent 
enlistments." 

He remained immured in the filthy guard-house until 



REV. JUDSOX D. BEX EDICT. 185 

"Wednesday morning at 11 o'clock, without having food or 
drink offered him. At noon he was transferred to the 
county jail, by order of the Marshal. During the transit, 
^^ handcuffs'' were applied to the other prisoners, but he was 
spared the indignity, and permitted to accompany his custo- 
dians without wearing Mr. Stanton's official and ornamental 
jewels. 

On the 3d of September, his counsel, \h\ Albert Sawin, 
of BuiFalo, applied to several Federal officers and citizens for 
letters to the Secretary of War, recommending his release. 
These they all refused. He then applied to Deputy Marshal 
Stevens for a like recommendation. The Marshal refused, 
saying that he had " discretion to exercise in arresting," but 
that he had "no power to discharge." Whereupon Mr. 
Sawin said to him, " but the War Department, upon being- 
advised by you that the Government would be strengthened 
by his discharge, would undoubtedly be governed by your 
opinion, and order his release." 

To which he replied, " I shall make no such recommenda- 
tion." 

The. question here arises, "Should a man, under any cir- 
cumstances, do that which conflicts with his conscience or is 
against good morals." If a superior makes an order, should 
an inferior obey it right or wrong? Only he who is merce- 
nary in all the aftairs of life, would permit his integrity to be 
influenced by the mandate of a superior, when he was con- 
scious the order under which he acted was contrary to his 
own sense of justice. 

The following statement, signed by a large number of the 
prominent citizens of Aurora, was then presented to Marshal 
Stevens. The loyalty and integrity of the subscribers were 
certified to by Judges Hall and Sheldon : 

" We, the undersigned, would respectfully represent to the 
proper authorities, (if the}^ can be reached,) that we are pained to 
learn that Eev. J. D. Benedict was arrested on Tuesday morning, 
for preaching a sermon in Aurora, on Sunday last, which sermon, 
it is alleged, was calculated to discourage enlistments. We, the 



186 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

undersigned, attentively listened to said sermon, and can put no 
such construction on it. 

"Aurora, September 3, 1862. 

Gen. Aaron Riley, Robert Person, 

Horace Hoyt, Wm. D. Jones, 

Daniel D. Stiles, Timothy Paine, 

Saeina Potter, Wm. B. Paine, 

Alonzo Havens, Isaiah Phillips, 

Harry H. Person, Reynolds Cole, 

Nehemiah Smith, John P. Wilson, 

Ephraim Woodruff, Horace Prentice, 

Dorr Spooner, N. A. Turner, 

Whipple Spooner, Jonathan Smith, 

Edward Spooner, Hugh Minton, 

together with numerous ladies, members of the church and 
congregation." 

Mr. Sawin further inquired of the Marshal, " Will you 
certify to the good character of the people of Aurora, who 
have signed that statement?" This he obdurately refused to 
do. He then applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of 
habeas corpus^ which was refused him hy two of the three 
Judges on the bench. Judges Xoah Davie, of Albion, and 
James G. Hoyt, of Bufialo, refusing the writ, while Judge 
Martin Grover, of Angelica, dissented. He then, on the 
same day, requested Deputy Marshal Stevens to informally 
consent to, or not oppose an allowance of a w^rit of habeas 
corpus by Judge Hall, for the sole purpose of enabling Mr. 
Benedict to give bail ; that he could give bail , to the amount 
of $50,000, to comply with any condition the Federal officers 
might impose. Stevens replied he would consent to no such 
thing, and he would '■'■disobey any order for his release on bail, 
which Judge Hall might make.'' And yet, in the case of Mr. 
Barker, of Gowanda, such bail, with the consent of a Deputy 
Marshal of Buffalo, had been given, and Barker released. 
Mr. Saw^in soon after had an interview with Marshal Chase, 
who proposed that, on a future day, witnesses should be ex- 
amined on both sides, before a Federal commissioner, in the 



EEV. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 187 

regular way, by examination and cross-examination in pub- 
lic, and he would forward their depositions to Washington. 
This Mr. Sawin agreed to, and on the day fixed, several 
men and women who heard the sermon, that occasioned 
Mr. Benedict's arrest appeared as witnesses. But instead 
of being examined publicly. Marshal Chase insisted that 
the affidavits should be drawn in private ; that each witness 
should be brought to his private room, when he would cross- 
examine them in private, which might be written down as a 
part of their depositions. This was agreed to, and five hours 
were spent by the prisoner's counsel in the work. When 
finished. Marshal Chase said that he might forward the 
papers, and he would write to the Department, recommend- 
ing the restoration of the prisoner to liberty. 

Mr. Sawin took the aflidavits drawn by Marshal Chase, 
with his consent, to his oflice, and directed his student to 
copy them. In about fifteen minutes afterward, and during 
Mr. Sawin's absence, Deputy Marshal Grant entered the office 
and said to his student : " The Marshal has sent me for those 
depositions." 

The latter replied : " I am copying them." 

Grant then took them from the table and proceeded to the 
Marshal's ofiice, accompanied by the student, Mr. Miller, 
who said to Stevens : " I am copying the papers." Stevens 
replied " there was no use of copying them, and Sawin knew 
it ; and Sawin could not make any damned political capital 
of it. I want the papers to send oft' immediatel}^ and if 
Sawin wants a copy of them, he can take them and go to h — 1 
with them." But he nevertheless retained them. 

The family and friends of Mr. Benedict waited for a week 
after this for word from Washington, but none came. The 
papers of Noah B. Clark, who had been committed for " dis- 
couraging enlistments," had been forwarded to Washington 
by the United States ISIarshal two days later, and he was 
released. 

After the release of Clark, and being unable to learn that 
there was any prospect of voluntary action on the part of 



188 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the Marshal or the Secretary of War for the prisoner's dis- 
charge, Mr. Sawin, at the request of Mr. Benedict's family 
and friends, presented the papers to Judge Hall for a writ of 
habeas corpus. 

For the benefit of our readers, we give the subjoined copies 
of such papers, together with the writ and proof of service, 
the return of Best and Stevens, the order of Judge Hall on 
Chase, the first petition for a writ of habeas corpus^ and the 
papers accompanying the same : 

To THE Hon. Nathan K. Hall, United States District Judge for 
the NoHhern District of New York. 

" The petition of Judson D. Benedict shows : 

"That he is now confined and restrained of his libert}' in the 
jail of the County of Erie, by VYilUani F. Best, the keeper of 
said jail. 

" That your petitioner is not committed or detained by virtue 
of any process issued by any Court of the United States, or any 
judge thereof, or by virtue of the final judgment or decree of 
an}- court, or by virtue of an}- process of any kind or description. 

" That the only cause of such detention by said jailor is a 
paper delivered to him by A. G. Stevens, Deputy United States 
JVlarshal, a copy of Avhich is hereto annexed, marked schedule (A). 

" That A. Gr. Stevens an-ested your petitioner at Aurora, 
Tuesday morning, the 2d of September inst. All he said to your 
petitioner at the time of arrest was : ' I have an unpleasant duty 
to perform; I have come to arrest you. I suppose you are wil- 
ling to go with me without opposition?' Your petitioner re- 
plied, 'Most certainl}-.' Said Stevens then took deponent to 
Fort Porter, and left him there, where your petitioner stayed 
until removed to jail. 

'• Said Stevens showed no paper to your petitioner, nor did he 
state any cause for such arrest. 

" Your petitioner has neither by act nor speech been disloyal 
to the Constitution or laws of the United States, or been guilty 
of any violation of any order of the War Department, or of the 
President of the United States, or been guilty of an}- otfence or 
act subjecting him to arrest. 

"That your petitioner alleges, that such arrest and imprison- 



KEY. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 189 

mont are illegal, for the reason that he has not been charged with 
an}" offence known to the laws, no process has been issued by any 
court or magistrate for his arrest; and deponent refers to an- 
nexed affidavit of Albert Sawin, his counsel, for the only pretence 
for his arrest given by the United States Deputy Marshal. 

" Your petitioner therefore prays your Honor to direct and 
authorize the issuing of a writ of habeas corpus, to be directed to 
said A. G. Stevens, such Deputy Marshal of the United States, 
and William F. Best, aforesaid jailor of the County of Erie, 
directing and requiring said Deputy United States Marshal and 
said jailor to produce the body of your petitioner before 3-our 
Honor, that the cause of such imprisonment may be inquired 
into, and your petitioner may be set at liberty. 

(Signed) J. D. Benedict." 

" The United States OF America, ~\ 
The Northern District of New York, > ss. 
County of Erie. ) 

" Judson D. Benedict, being duly sworn, says that he has heard 
the foregoing petition signed by him, read, and knows the con- 
tents thereof, and the same is true of his own knowledge. 

(Signed) J. D. Benedict. 

"Sworn to before me, this loth day of September, 1862. 

(Signed) P. G. Parker, 

U. S. Commissioner for Erie Co." 



("A") 



Marshal's Office, ") 

2, 1862. [ 



BuflPalo, September 
" David M. Grant will take from Fort Porter, Thomas Cum- 
mings, James Parker, Antoine Quanliet, Noah B. Clark, and Jared 
Benedict, prisoners confined there, committed under orders of 
the War Department, and remove them to the Erie Count}^ jail 
for safe-keeping, and there detain them until further order, and 
the sheriif or jailor of said county will keep them, until further 
order, in said jail. 

(Signed) A. G. Stevens, 

U. S. Deputy Marshal. 
" To Col. E. P. Chapin, and the 

Sheriff and Jailor of Erie County." 



190 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 



"United States of America, "^ 
JSWthern District of JVew York, > ss. 
County of Eric. ) 

"Albert Suwin, counsellor at law, being clul^' sworn, says that, 
at the request of the above-named Judson D, Benedict, on the 
3d day of September inst., he inquired jiersonally of Deputy 
United States Marshal Stevens, at his oftice in Buffalo, if he 
arrested said Benedict by virtue of any order, process, or paper. 
He said he did not, but he showed deponent a slip cut from a 
newspaper, ]irintcd, a copy of which is hereto annexed, and said 
that printed slip was his only authority for the arrest of said 
Benedict. 

(Signed) Albert Saavin. 

"Sworn this 15th day of September, 1862. 

(Signed) P. G. Parker, U. S. Commissioner." 



"War Department,) 
August 8, 1802. I 
"Ordered : 

^^First. That all United States Marshals, and Superintendents 
and Chiefs of Police of any town, city, or district, be and they 
are hereby authorized and directed to arrest and imjirison any 
person or persons who maybe engaged by act, speech, or Avriting 
in discouraging volunteer enlistments, or in any way giving aid 
and comfort to the enemy, or for any other di>;loyal practice 
against the United States. 

^•Second. That immediate report be made to Major L. C. Tur- 
ner, Judge Advocate, in order that such persons may be tried 
before a military commission. 

" 'Third. The expense of such arrest and im])risonment will be 
certified to the Chief Clerk of the War Department for settle- 
ment and payment. 

(Signed) Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War." 

indorsement on petition. 

"Northern District of Kew York. ss. 

"On the within petition 1 allow a writ of habeas corpus, to bo 
directed to Albert G. Stevens, United States Deputy ;Marsha], 
and William F. Best, the keeper of Erie County Jail, and made 



KEY. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 191 

returnable on the 18th day of September inst., at 10 a. m., before 
me; and I direct the Clerk of the District Court to prepare %h<\ 
writ, that I may indorse an allowance thereon. 

(Signed) N. K. Hall, 

U. S Pistrict Judge. 
« Dated September 15, 18G2." 

THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPU?. 

"The President of the United States of AM^RnA, 

To Albert G. Stevens, Deputy Marshal of the United States_ arul 
P -. William F. Best, the Keeper of the Erie Coun^ Jail, 
Greeting: 

"You are hereby commanded, that you have the body of 
Judson D. Benedict, by you imprisoned and detained, as it is 
said, together with the time and cause of such imprisonment and 
detention, by whatsoever name the said Judsan D. Benedict 
shall be called or charged, before the Honorable Nathan K. Hall, 
District Judge of the United States for the Northern District of 
New York, at the United States Court-room, at the corner of 
Washington and Seneca Streets, in the City of Buffalo, in 
said Northern District of New York, at ten o'clock in the fore- 
noon of the eighteenth day of September, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, to do and re- 
ceive what shall then and there be considered concerning the 
caid .Judson, D. Benedict. And have you then and there this writ. 

" Witness, the Hon. Nathan K. Hall, Judge of the District Court 
of the United States for the Northern District of New York, at 
the city of Buffalo, the sixteenth day of September, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two. 

(Signed) Geo. Gorham, Clerk." 

indorsement. 

'•Northern District of New York, ss. 

"The within writ, on petition of the within named Judson I), 
Benedict, has been allowed, and herel)y is allowed by me, in pur- 
suance of the statute in such case made and provided, September 
16, 18G2. 

(Signed) N. K. Hall, 

District Judge of the United States, for the Northern 

District of New York." 



192 AMEKICAN B A STILE. 



THE JAILOR S RETURN TO THE WRIT. 

" To THE Hon. Nathan K. Hall, Judge of the United States for 
the Northern District of New York : 
" The statement of William F. Best respectfully showeth : 
"That he is now, and since the first day of September instant 
has been the keeper of Erie County Jail. That on or about the 
third day of September instant, he received into said jail one 
Judson D. Benedict, by the name of Ja?'ed Benedict. That he 
received him under and by virtue of a written order signed by 
A.G.Stevens, as a Deputy Marshal of the United States, of which 
a copy is hereto annexed, and not otherwise. That since he so 
received the said Benedict he has held and now holds him by 
virtue of said ordei", and no other order or process; that he has 
held and so holds him as the bailee or custodian of said Deputy 
Marshal and his principal, and not otherwise. That on or about 
the sixteenth day of September instant, he was served with a 
writ of habeas corpus, issued by your Honor, directed to said A 
G. Stevens, and to him the said William F. Best, as keeper of the 
Erie County Jail, commanding them, among other things, to bring 
and have the body of the said Judson D. Benedict, and said writ 
before 3'our Honor as such Judge, on the eighteenth day of 
September instant, at 10 o'clock a.m., at the United States Court- 
room, in Buffalo. That in obedience to said Avrit, it was the in- 
tention of me, the said William F. Best, in good faith, to bring 
and have the body of the said Benedict before 3'Our Honor at the 
time and place last aforesaid, as by the said writ commanded, 
and to that end I, the said William F. Best, had made and an- 
nexed to said writ ray return thereto, which I'eturu comprised 
a copy of the order under which said Benedict was held by me, 
and a statement that it was by virtue of that alone that I held 
him, and that I produced the body of said Benedict before your 
Honor, as by the said writ commanded. That this morning, at 
about the hour of half-past nine o'clock, in the office of Edward 
I. Chase, the Marshal of the United States for the Northern 
District of New York, in Buffalo, the said Edward I. Chase 
asked me to let him take and look at said writ and I'cturn. That 
not suspecting bad faith on his part, and believing that he would 
return the same to me, and at the suggestion of Asher P. 



REV. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 193 

Nichols, my counsel, I handed the same to him. That after ex- 
amining the same he said it was his writ, and refused to return 
it to me. That thereupon, I made a formal demand on him for 
the same, which demand he refused to comply with. That having 
no writ, I cannot have here the said writ or make a f )rmal re- 
turn thereto, as by the said w^rit I was commanded; nor can I 
have the body of said Judson D. Benedict here, as commanded by 
8aid writ, for the reasons above stated, 

" Dated, September 18, 1862. 

(Signed) William F. Best. 

"Northern District op New York, ss. 

"William F. Best being sworn, says he is the person described 
in and who signed the within statement ; that he has heard the 
same read and knows the contents thereof, and the same is in all 
respects true, as he verily believes. 

(Signed) William F. Best. 

"Subscribed and sworn this 18th day of September, 1862, be- 
fore me. 

(Signed) N. K. Hall, TJ. S. District Judge." 

" United States of America, ") 
Northern District of Neio York, [■ ss. 
County of Erie, j 

"Albert Sawin, being duly sworn, says he is counsel for Judson 
D. Benedict, named in a writ of habeas corpus, a copy of which 
is hereto annexed, and also a copy of original order of allowance 
indorsed thereon. 

"That on the sixteenth day of September inst., he served the 
said writ of habeas corpus, with said copy and order, upon Albert 
G. Stevens, the Deputy Marshal therein named, by delivering a 
t'Opy of the same, and of said order of allowance, so indorsed 
personally, to said Stevens personally, at the city of Buffalo, and 
at the same time showing him the said original writ, and said 
original order, indorsed thereon. That on the same day he de- 
livered to said William F. Best, keeper of the common jail of the 
County of Erie, personally, said original writ, with said order 
indorsed thereon. That this morning, about the hour of eight 
o'clock, deponent paid to said AVilliam F. Best, two dollars and 
13 



194 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

fifty cents, being the fees named by him, allowed bj- law for the 
return to and execution of said writ,' who received the same. 

" That on the morning of the 17th day of September inst., de- 
ponent was present at an interview between said Stevens and 
said Best, in which said Stevens told said Best he had received 
instructions from the War Department to resist said writ, and 
he, said Stevens, directed said Best not to obey it, such being the 
order of the War Department. Deponent said, ' Of course Mr. 
Best will obey the writ, and bring Benedict before Judge Hall.' 
Said Stevens said he would have a force to prevent. Deponent 
said, ' Mr. Best, I will be present to-morrow morning as one to 
assist you in obeying said writ, though at the peril of being 
shot.' Said Stevens replied, ^Then you will be shot, and 1 will re- 
port you to the War Department.' 

" Deponent further says, that this forenoon he inquired of said 
Stevens what fees he demanded for making return to said writ 
of habeas corptns^ and informed him he, deponent, was ready to 
pay the same ; the onl}^ reply he made was, ' No matter.' 

(Signed) Albert Sawin. 

" Sworn and subscribed this 18th day of September, 1862. 

(Signed) A. P. !Nichols, U. S. Commissioner." 

Deputy Marshal Stevens's return to writ. 

'' To THE Hon. Nathan K. Hall, District Judge of the United 
States for the Northern District o|' JVew York: 
"The annexed paper was delivered to me. It purports to be 
a writ of habeas corpus. It is not under the seal of the Court; 
the signature to the same is not the handwriting of the Clerk, 
nor is the signature to the allowance indorsed on the same in 
the handwriting of your Honor, nor is it certified to be a copy 
of an original process. I understand that an original writ was 
served upon, and is in the hands of William F. Best, one of the 
persons to whom the same is directed ; the said Best refuses to 
allow me to have said writ, or recognize any authority on my 
part to the prisoner therein named, or to allow me to have the 
custody and control of the prisoner, and claims that he alone 
should make return to said writ. I would further state that 
said prisoner was legally arrested by me by authority of the 
President of the United StateS; and delivered by me in custody, 



KEY. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 195 

under such authority, in the jail of Erie Count}', where I placed 
him for safe keeping mei-elj^, and where he now is, and that I 
still have lawful right to said prisoner; but the jailor of said Erie 
County jail, on demand of said prisoner this day made by me 
of him for said prisoner, refused to deliver said prisoner to me, 
as he rightfully and lawfully should do. I further state that no 
return made by said Best, to said writ, can present the true facts 
of the case, or the cause of the detention of said prisoner. 
(Signed) Albert G. Stevens. 

U. S. Deputy Marshal." 

IN HABEAS CORPUS. 

*'/n the Matter of Jicdson D. Benedict 
" It appearing to my satisfaction, by the affidavit of Williara 
F. Best, that Edward I. Chase, now present, has received from 
him, on request, and detained from him, against his will, the writ 
of habeas corpus heretofore issued in this matter, (and directed 
and delivered to said William F. Best,) and thereby prevented 
his obedience to said writ; I hereby order and direct the said 
Edward I. Chase to deliver the said writ to the said Best, or to 
the undersigned, or show cause, before me, at the United States 
Court-room in Buffalo, at half-past two o'clock this afternoon, 
why he shall not be committed for a contempt. 

N. K. Hall, 
" September 18, 1862. U. S. District Judge." 

Albert G. Stevens, Deputy Marshal, was made a party as 
well as the jailer, who had his actual custody. The return of 
Stevens is a curiosity. The object of making Stevens a party 
was to enable him to produce any evidence showing Benedict 
had done anything worthy of bonds. He declined to do this. 
Marshals Chase and Stevens had previously declared that 
Jailer Best should not take Benedict from the jail to Judge 
Hall's court-room, and they would use force to prevent it. 
Accordingly, in the absence of the Colonel of the regiment, 
Marshal Chase procured from Camp Morgan a company of 
soldiers, and placed them in the vicinity of the jail for the 
purpose of executing that threat. The friends of the jailer, 
Best, were likewise in the vicinity in sufficient numbers to 



196 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

enable liim to obey the writ, no matter bow mucb force the 
Marshal might have obtained. However, without opposi- 
tion, the loyal jailer was permitted to obey the writ. 

"U. S. District Court. — Judge Hall presiding. 
September 18th. 

"The case of the writ of habeas corpus commanding A. G. 
Stevens, Deputy United States Marshal, and Wm. F, Best, Jailor, 
of Erie County, to produce the body of Eev. Judson D. Benedict 
in court, was before the court. 

"A. Sawin made a statement of the service of the writ of 
habeas corpus upon the jailor of the Erie County jail. 

"A. P. Nichols, Esq., the attorney for the jailor, made a return, 
stating that the jailor had handed the writ of habeas corpus to 
United States Marshal Chase, by the advice of his attorney, and 
that Mr. Chase had refused to return it to him, and that it was 
impossible to return either the writ or the prisoner. 

" United States Marshal Chase claimed that the prisoner was 
in his custody, having been arrested by order of the President, 
through the Secretary of War ; that the jailor was simply a ma- 
chine, and that he was the proper custodian of the prisoner. 

" This was the position taken by United States District Attor- 
ney Dart. 

"Mr. Nichols claimed that the prisoner was now held by the 
jailor by virtue of the writ of habeas corpus, and that he could 
not surrender him until that Avrit was vacated. 

" After a somewhat extended argument, Judge Hall made an 
order that Marshal Chase return the writ to the jailor; and that 
he make a I'cturn at two and a half o'clock, etc. 

" The court adjourned till that hour." 

During the recess of the court, Marshal Chase oftered to 
deliver up the writ of habeas corjms, which he had withheld 
from Jailer Best, on the condition that the jailer would 
deliver the prisoner into his custody. This the jailer refused ; 
and before two o'clock Marshal Chase surrendered the writ, 
evidently not wishing to disobey the order of the court. 

The jailer, now being in possession of the writ, took the 
prisoner, in company with Sheriff Best, and escorted him to 



REV. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 197 

the court-room, wlaere he was cordially greeted by many 
of his friends. 

"United States Marshal Chase came into court and delivered 
to the Judge a return to the writ of habeas corpus, setting forth 
by what authority his deputy had arrested the prisoner, and that 
the writ of habeas corpus having been suspended, and he ordered 
to resist any attempt to execute it, he could not obey the order 
of the court. This was understood to be the substance of the 
return. 

" Marshal Chase requested the jailor to give him a copy of the 
order of the court compelling him to return the writ. 

" The Judge said a cop}" would be furnished him. 

''A. P. Nichols, Esq., then made the proper return to the writ, 
and produced Rev. J. D. Benedict in court. 

" United States District Attorney Dart said, that a turnkey 
had in some way obtained possession of a United States prisonei*, 
arrested by order of the President of the United States, through 
the Secretary of War, for uttering seditious language, or language 
calculated to weaken the confidence of the people in the Govern- 
ment. In such cases, the President suspended the writof Aa^e^s 
corpus, and ordered that forcible resistance be made to its execution. 
He hoped that the occasion for arrests under this order had 
ceased, and that there would be no conflict of jurisdiction in this 
case. He asked the suspension of proceeding until Tuesday fol- 
lowing, trusting that the matter might be satisfactorily ari'anged 
before that time. 

"Albert Sawin opposed the postponement. It was important 
that the great question of personal liberty, in connection with 
the arbitrary arrests, should be disposed of by a legal tribunal. 

" Judge Hall said the real question at issue was whether the 
President had the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and 
if this was the question to be ai'gned, the time asked was not 
unreasonable. He was anxious that the matter should be fairly 
canvassed, and a conflict of authority avoided. He would, there- 
fore, grant the request of the United States District Attorney, 
and adjourn the case to Tuesday next, September 23, at 11a.m., 
meanwhile the prisoner to remain in the custody of the jailor, to 
be again produced in court at the time named. 



198 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

"The District Attorney desired tlie Judge simply to remand 
the prisoner, without naming the custodian. 

" Mr. Sawin opposed this. The Marshal wished to gain posses- 
sion of the prisoner for the purpose of placing him in military 
custody, and beyond the jurisdiction of the court. 

"A. P. Nichols, Esq., asked the court to make an order stating 

' what authority the jailor held the prisoner, whether by order 
,he Marshal, or under the writ of habeas corpus and the order 
of this court. He wished the duty and the authority of the 
jailor clearly defined. 

"Mr. Dart desired that the court would make no such order, 
but simply i-emand the prisoner. He thought the court ought to 
have confidence in the Marshals, and believed they would respect 
the court. 

"Judge Hall said the custody of the prisoner will continue with 
the jailor as it is now. The prisoner is now held by virtue of the 
writ of habeas corpus. He is removed from the custody of the 
Marshal or Deputy Marshals, and neither of them can interfere 
with him until the hearing and determination of this writ. 

" Marshal Chase wished to know whether his authority in this 
case was at an end. 

"The Judge replied, that he had as much and no more to do 
with it than any other citizen. If he, or any other man, knew 
of any crime the prisoner had committed, it was his duty to 
inform against him, that he might be punished according to law. 
It was especially the duty of the United States District Attor- 
ney to ascertain the facts and pi'oceed against him, if he had 
been guilty of any violation of the laws of the land." 

The following is tlie copy of the order of Judge Hall in 
the case : 

" ON THE HABEAS CORPUS. 

" Tn the flatter of Judson D. Benedict. 

" The said Judson D. Benedict having this day been brought 
before me by W. F. Best, the keeper of the common jail in the 
County of Erie, in obedience to the annexed writ of habeas corpus, 
and the hearing under the said writ, and the return made thereto, 
having, at the request of the Hon. Wm. H. Dart, United States 
District Attorney, been adjourned until Tuesday, the 23d day of 
September, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, it is hereby ordered, 



REV. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 199 

on the motion of the counsel for the defendant, that the said 
Judson D. Benedict be and he is hereby remanded and com- 
mitted to the custod}' of Wm. F. Best, as such jailor, to be kept 
and detained by him under the authority of such writ of habeas 
corpus, and this order, until the time to which said hearing is so 
adjourned ; and that said Wm. F. Best produce and bring the 
body of the said Judson D. Benedict and the said writ of habeas 
corpus before the undersigned, at the United States Court-room, 
in the city of Buffalo, on the 23d day of September inst., at 11 
o'clock A.M., then and there to do and receive what shall then 
and there be considered in that behalf 

(Signed) N. K. Hall, 

U. S. District Judge. 
"September 18, 1862." 

After the necessary papers were made out, Rev. Mr. Bene- 
dict walked, in company with Mr. Best, hack to his apart- 
ments at the jaiL It was rumored that the Marshal would 
attempt the rescue of the prisoner, but this was unfounded. 

"U. S. District Covrt. — Buffalo, September 23rf, 1862. 

.... " Shortly before 11 o'clock, the prisoner appeared in court, 
in company with the jailor, Wm. F. Best. A. P. Nichols, Esq., 
attorney for the jailor, handed up the original writ of habeas 
corpus, with the order of the Judge, remanding the prisoner to 
jail, engrossed upon it. 

"The court did not understand that any demurrer had been 
made to the writ as returned, or issue taken on the facts stated 
in the return. 

" Albert Sawin, Esq., claimed that the return, as made, stated in 
what manner the prisoner was arrested and was held, sufficiently 
clear to enable the court to determine that the arrest is illegal, 
and that the prisoner should be discharged. 

" The court inquired if the United States District Attornc)^ M'as 
to be present, and directed the officer of the court to inquire if 
the District Attorney desired to be heard in the case. 

" Marslial Chase soon after appeared in court, and held a conver- 
sation with Judge Hall, which was not audible. After the close 
of the interview, the Court announced that the U. S. District At- 
torney did not propose to appear, or to make any further state- 



200 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ments to the Coui"t, or furnish any proofs in the ease ; that neither 
the Marshal nor his Deputy, Stevens, would appear; and that, so 
far as they wei-e concerned, the case was left to the Court in its 
present condition. 

" The Court desired to say to any person and to all persons 
present, that if they knew of any crime that the prisoner had 
committed against the laws of the United States, or any cause of 
ari-est, other than that set forth in the return, they should make 
it known. He had prepared an opinion in the case, embodying 
its legal bearings, which he should publish as his justification." 

The opinion of Judge Hall, discharging the Rev. Mr. Bene- 
dict on writ of habeas corpus, is replete with learning and 
research, and we regret that want of space prevents us from 
presenting it to the reader in full. He refers to English and 
American statutes and constitutions from the settlement of 
England by the Saxons to tlie present time, and cites from 
the Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, the Bill of Rights, 
the Act of Settlement, and quotes from Hume, Hallam, Black- 
stone, Story, and other authors. He refers to the decisions 
of the purest and ablest jurists of England and America in 
support of his opinion, and concludes his erudite and profound 
reasoning as follows : 

" The decisions referred to have been before the profession 
and the country for more than forty years ; and, so far as I 
know, they liacl not, until a very recent period, been ques- 
tioned, or their doctrines assailed by any respectable jurist. 
I cannot but endeavor to follow, though with feeble and un- 
steady steps, in the paths of constitutional duty, clearly and 
distinctly marked with the ineffaceable footprints of Marshall, 
of Story, of Washington, of Livingston, of Martin, and of 
Taney, and, guided by the serene and steady light of their 
recorded opinions, I may certainly hope not to go far astray." 

This opinion alone stamps Judge Hall as one of the purest, 
most learned, and upright jurists that America has produced. 

At the conclusion of the opinion, Judge Hall made an 
order discharging the prisoner from arrest, no cause having 
been shown why he should be detained. 



REV. JUDSOX D. BENEDICT. 201 

The following is a copy of his order : 

" IN HABEAS CORPUS, 

"In the Matter of Judson D. Benedict. 
"The said Judson D. Benedict, having this day been again 
brought before me in pursuance of the annexed writ of habeas 
corpus and order, and the counsel of the said petitioner having 
filed a demurrer to the return of the said writ, made by W. F. 
Best, jailor, and to the statement heretofore made by A. G. 
Stevens, Deputy Marshal, (no one appearing to oppose the dis- 
charge,) I having proceeded ex-parte to hear jfnd consider the case 
as now presented, and vdetermined that no legal cause for the 
arrest, imprisonment, and detention of the said Benedict is shown 
by said return, or said statement and return, and having invited 
all persons present to make proof, if any could be made, that the 
said Benedict had been guilty of any offence against the laws of 
the United States, or was subject to arrest for any cause other 
than, that appearing on said return, and no such proof being 
offered, I do hereby order and direct that the said Judson J). 
Benedict be and is hereb}" discharged from custody. 

(Signed) N. K. Hall, 

U. S. District Judge." 

Marshal Chase stated that previous to the issuing of the 
writ of habeas corpus by Judge Hall, he had written to the 
War Department, recommending the release of Mr. Eenedict, 
and that he would have been released before, had it not been 
for the attempt of Sawin to raise an issue with the United 
States Government. Mr. Benedict, who had been discharged 
from arrest by the order of the highest court known to the 
Constitution, was again arrested by the United States Mar- 
shals, although his release had been recommended by Mr. 
Chase. Several members of the police force were seen to 
enter the court and disperse themselves about the room, 
while Marshal Chase, and Deputy Tyler, of Lockport, sought 
positions near the then free citizen of the United States, 
standing in the Temple of Justice, and awaiting a copy of 
the proclamation of emancipation just issued by the Judge. 

As soon as he received a copy of the order, Officer Tyler 



I 

202 A M E E I C A N B ^ S T I L E. 

was observed to speak to him, and the reverend gentleman, 
with his papers in his hand, demanded to he shown the 
authority for his arrest. He said he did not propose to resist, 
but wished to know by whose orders he was seized. He was 
told, " We will shoiD you the authority, ivhen we get you where 
we want you." He was hurried, Marshal Chase on one side 
of him, and Officer Tyler on the other, down the stairs, and 
to a carriage in waiting, in which Deputy Marshal Stevens 
sat. A large crowd gathered about the carriage, and much 
feeling was exhibited, but no attempt was made to rescue 
the prisoner. The carriage was driven off, Marshal Chase on 
the box with the driver, and the prisoner inside with Officers 
T}' ler and Stevens. This Avas done hy special order of the War 
Department to Marshal Chase, directing him to resist the 
writ, or, in the event of the prisoner's discharge, to re-arrest 
him. Mr. Sawin again applied to Judge Hall for a writ of 
habeas corpus, which was granted, and served upon the Mar- 
shal by Harvey B. Ransom, as the annexed return will show : 

"TTnited States of America, ") 
Nortltern District of New York, j "^ 

"Harvey B. Ransom, being duly aworn says: that he is well 
acquainted with Edward I. Chase, named in annexed copy of 
writ of habeas corpus. That he served iij^on said Chase, at the 
city of Buffalo, on the 28d day of September inst., at or about the 
hour of five o'clock p.m. of that day, an origin^il writ of habeas 
corpus, with the original order of allowance, signed by Judge 
Hall, indorsed thereon, copies of which writ and order are hereto 
annexed, by delivering the same, at the time and place aforesaid, 
to said Chase personally. That deponent and said Chase went 
yesterday afternoon, on same train of cars, to Lockport. Depo- 
nent saw, after his arrival, within named Benedict in front of said 
Chase's oftice, at Lockport, said Chase, as deponent was informed, 
being in his office at the time. 

(Signed) Harvey B. Ransom. 

" Sworn and subscribed before me, this 24t1i day of September, 

1862. 

CSigned) A. P. Nichols, U. S. Commissioner." 



KEY. JUDSON D. BE :s^ EDICT. 203 

The writ of habeas corjnts was made returnable at 10 o'clock 
A.M., on Thursday, the 25th inst., at the United States Court- 
room in Buft'alo, at which time United States Marshal Chase 
made the following return, to wit : 

"To THE Hon. Nathan K. Hall, District Judge of the United 
States for the Northern District of New York : 

"The annexed writ was delivered to me between five and six 
o'clock in the afternoon of the 23d day of September last. Be- 
fore that time, and about noon of that day, Jiidson D. Benedict, 
the person named in said writ, had been arrested by me for dis- 
loyal practice, by order of the President of the United States, 
and put in charge of Daniel G. Tucker, with direction to convey 
him to the Old Capitol Prison in the city of Washington, and 
said Tucker immediatelj^ left Buffalo with the prisoner for that 
purpose. 

" Under general orders made by the President, through the 
War Department, bearing date the 18th of August, 18G2, said 
Benedict had been, on September 2, 1862, arrested by my deputy, 
A. Gr. Stevens, for such disloyal practice, and said deputy was 
ordered by the War Department to detain him in custody until 
the further order of said Department. For safe keeping, said 
Benedict was removed from Fort Porter to the jail of Erie 
County. 

"Afterward, as is said, a writ of habeas corpus, directed to said 
Stevens and William F. Best, the jailor, was delivered to said 
jailor. The War Department was informed by said Stevens of 
the allowance of said writ, and said Stevens was directed b^' said 
Department not to regard said writ. But said William F. Best, 
the jailor, refused to allow me or my deputy, Mr. Stevens, to 
have any control of the prisoner, or of the writ, and avowed his 
intention to make return to said writ, and produce the prisoner 
before your Honor. 

"I informed the War Department of such refusal and avowal. 
In answer, I received an order made by the Secretary of War, 
saying, in substance: 'Your deputy, Mr. Stevens, was dii-ected 
to disregard the writ of habeas corpus. If Stevens or the jailor 
permits Benedict to be discharged on habeas corpus, arrest him 
again, and convey him to the Old Capitol Prison at Washington.' 



204 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

" The original order was delivered by me to Mr. Tucker, into 
whose charge I delivered the prisoner, and I have no perfect 
copy. The above is a substantial copy, and in all essential par- 
ticulars is correct. 

"In pursuance of such order, after said Benedict was, on the 
23d inst., discharged from the custody of said Best, and said Ben- 
edict had left the United States Court-room, I arrested him, and 
put him in charge of Mr. Tucker, with the directions above 
stated. 

" A formidable insurrection and rebellion is, as is well known, 
now in progress in this country, and the writ of habeas corpus 
suspended, and the President of the United States, by one of the 
orders above referred to, made on the 8th of August, declares the 
same to be suspended in case of disloyal practices. I would also 
refer your Honor to the proclamation of the President of the 
United States of the 24th September inst. 

" I, therefore, understand that the above arrests are military 
arrests, in relation to which the writ of habeas cor-pus is sus- 
pended. 1 have, however, out of respect to your Honor, and the 
judicial authority of the country, thought it my duty to return 
to you the annexed writ of habeas corpus, and make the fore- 
going statement. Very respectfully, 

(Signed) Edward I. Chase, 

U. S. Marshal. 

"Dated the 25th of September, A.D. 1862." 

After the prisoner had been placed in a carriage, with three 
Deputy Marshals as a special guard, he was driven to Lock- 
port, in the County of Niagara, a distance of about forty 
miles. 

At about 9 o'clock p.m., he was again placed in a carriage, 
and conveyed through highways and byways, until 3 o'clock 
the next morning, when he arrived at Bafavia, a few 'miles 
from Buffalo^ on the Central Railroad. At 6 o'clock, he was 
placed on the cars for Cananclaigua, and from there to New 
York, thence to Baltimore, and linall}^ to Washington, where 
he remained for some weeks an inmate of the Old Capitol 
Prison. 

When the Majesty of the Despotism that ruled at Wash- 



KEV. JUDSON D. BENEDICT. 205 

mgton became appeased, Mr. Benedict was taken before one 
of the instruments of its tyranny, L. C. Turner, Judge Ad- 
vocate, who received the reverend gentleman with one of his 
hypocritical smiles. After the usual interchange of cour- 
tesies, the Judge Advocate informed Mr. Benedict that he 
was discharged. (He was released on the 2d October, 1862.) 
Mr. Benedict ventured to inquire why he had been impris- 
oned. " OA," said the Judge Advocate, " it was only to show 
the people that the military power is noiv above the civil power." 

The Bourbons and l^apoleons in France, the Stuarts and 
other despots in England, all pleaded the "necessity of cir- 
cumstances " for their arbitrary acts of power, and their 
infringement on the rights and liberties of the people. 
Louis XIV., of France — to go back into historic times 
no farther — said, " I am the State." James of England 
said to the Duke of Somerset, who told the King that 
he could not obey him without violating law, " I will make 
you fear me as well as the law. Do you not know that I am 
above the law? " And this monarch said to his Parliament : 
" For matters of privileges, liberties, and customs, be not 
over-curious. We do what is for the best, and as necessity 
prompts. Let not any one stir you up to law questions, 
debates, or that sort of thing, for of these cometh evil." 

Mr. Lincoln acted on the principle established by these 
arbitrary monarchs. 



ISAAC C. W. POWELL, ESQ. 

ISAAC C. AY. POWELL was born in Sussex County, Dela- 
-*- ware, December 31st, 1823. In 1842, he entered Union 
College, IS'ew York, under Dr. IN'ott and Dr. Potter, and gra- 
duated, 1845, delivering the valedictory of his class. In 1846, 
he attended the law-school at Yale Colles-e. N'ew Haven. After 
leaving this school, and studying some months in the office 
of John Glenn (afterward Judge of the Circuit Court of the 
United States) in Baltimore, he opened an office for the prac- 
tice of his profession in Baltimore, adjoining that of Hon. 
James L. Bartol, for many years a Justice of the Court of 
Appeals of Maryland, and now its Chief Justice ; with whom 
he had always been on the kindest and most intimate terms 
of friendship. From Baltimore, Mr. Powell was called, in 
January, 1848, to his home on the beautiful Wye River, in 
Talbot County, Maryland, by the illness of his father. He 
reached home only in time to close his parent's eyes in death, 
and pay the last sad offices to his memory. He was obliged, 
as one of his father's executors, to remain in Talbot County, 
to settle his estate, and therefore closed his office in Balti- 
more, where he had commenced his professional career with 
the most flattering prospects. He then opened his law-office 
in Easton, in 1848. In 1849, he was chosen a member of the 
Legislature of Marjdand, and served with credit in that ses- 
sion in which the reform of the old Constitution was the 
great issue ; and, as a member of the Judiciary Committee 
of the House, contributed in no small degree to the passage 
of that measure. He married, in 1850, Miss Lucy A. Barker, 
of ISTew Bedford, Massachusetts, and settled down in the 
practice of his profession at Easton ; from which he has 
never been allured by political preferment, although many 

206 



ISAAC C. W. POWELL. 207 

opportunities offered. In 1859, he was elected State's Attor- 
ney for Talbot County, to serve for four years. 

In 1861 and the early part of 1862, citizens were arrested 
in his county, without cause, by the military miscreants who 
ruled the hour. The Constitution of the State and of the 
United States were violated in open day, by those acting 
under the authority of the sword and the bayonet. The 
armory of the State at Easton was sacked and riiled by a 
company of United States soldiers on a peaceful Sunday 
afternoon ; and public and private property carried oft' by 
those who would have been treated as ruftians and robbers, 
but for their epaulets. One old citizen, who dared to 
deny the falsehood of a political speaker, was seized at 
midnight and dragged from the side of his wife, to spend 
a week of unjust imprisonment in a camp, and subjected 
to every kind of indignity and inconvenience. Slaves, 
who were then recognized as property alike by the Federal 
and State laws, were taken from their owners (women and 
children as well as men) in scores, under the pretence of 
enlistment in the United States military service. ]^egro sol- 
diers were quartered on the county, and sent about in the 
most insulting manner to the residences of the citizens, to 
annoy and rob them. Provost Marshals were appointed, and 
spies and eavesdroppers and detectives hunted down, every- 
where, those who opposed the Lincoln dynasty. 

Indeed, so many and grievous were the outrages of the 
minions of the new power, that the grand jury, under the 
ruling of the Hon. Richard B. Carmichael, Judge of the Cir- 
cuit Court, presented a number of the most prominent oftend- 
ers, who were indicted, and process issued by the court for 
their apprehension. At the session of the court in May, 
1862, they (being out of the county) had not been taken 
under the writ issued. By preconcert and collusion with 
Sam.ucl T. Hopkins, Clerk of the Court, (who was one of the 
iirst of the men of Talbot to rush to Baltimore, after the 
aftair of the 19th of April, to repel the Federal soldiers in 
their passage through that city, but became afterward one 



208 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

of the most bitter of those who sided with that cause,) these 
men came to Eastou on the 25th of May, 1862, bringing with 
them a certain J. K. McPhail, of Baltimore, a maker of 
hats, as a sort of Marshal under the new order of things. 
The order had gone forth from the petty powers in Balti- 
more, borrowed from their superiors in Washington, to 
arrest those who resisted the aggressions upon civil liberty in 
Talbot County. The faithful, who had been directed to arrest 
Judge Carmichael for the honest discharge of his duty in his 
instructions to the grand jury, resolved to arrest Mr. Powell. 
Accordingly, on the 28th day of May, 1862, while the 
court was in session, and a cause on trial, in which Mr. Powell 
was engaged as counsel, McPhail, with a body of police, fol- 
lowed by a party of petty military officers, entered the court- 
room, marched to the Judge's chair, and, without exhibiting 
any authority, attempted to arrest him on the bench. The 
Judge, not knowing the persons, demanded their authority. 
McPhail said he was Marshal of Police in Baltimore, but 
declined to show any voucher for this or any order for Judge 
Carmichael's arrest. His policemen drew their pistols. The 
Judge called for the Sherilf, who being absent from his place, 
ordered him to be sent for by the crier at the door. He did not 
appear. One of the coarse villains then following, or rather 
leading McPhail, rushed on the Judge, who spurned him with 
his foot, as he would have done any other cur. Immediately 
the other rascals (McPhail among them) sprang upon the 
Judge from behind, and struck him many blows upon the 
head with their pistols, completely stunning him, and pros- 
trating him on the floor. He was then dragged out of the 
court-room into an entry, (where another citizen was fired 
upon by the partj^ and others assaulted;) but the chief ruffian, 
becoming alarmed at the extent of the proceeding, had him 
brouglit back into the court-room, his head covered with 
wounds, the scars of which he must bear to his grave, and 
the blood streaming from his venerable locks, and covering 
his garments to his feet. A company of one hundred or 
more soldiers had been ordered from Baltimore for the occa- 



i S A A C C. W. POWELL. 209 

sion ; and the brave McPhail did not make his onslaught 
upon the Judge until they were at the suburbs of the town. 
McPhail then ordered the arrest of Mr. Powell. 

The Judge and Mr. Powell, with two other citizens arrested 
by these lawless wretches, were taken on board the stearaer, 
which was guarded by the troops, and were placed in Fort 
McHenry the same night, or rather in the dirty loft of one 
of the staliles within the enclosure of the Fort, where some 
twenty-five others were imprisoned and guarded. The 
apartment in which they were placed was used for the pur- 
poses of eating and lodging, with no proper ventilation, and 
with the effluvia from filthy soldiers' quarters underneath 
poisoning the atmosphere. From this stable-room, noisome 
with stench and filth, the Judge and Mr. Powell were, by 
the intervention of friends, removed in a short time to inor(^ 
comfortable quarters. The improvement was, however, very 
slight ; for they, with four other prisoners, were confined in 
a room about eight by ten feet in size. Here they remained 
from the 1st of June to the 10th of July, and the season 
being hot and unwholesome, but for the kindness of General' 
Morris, commandant, who gave them on their parole the 
privilege of walking about the grounds, they would probably 
have perished. 

On the 10th of July, they were summarily sent to Fort 
Lafayette, where a coarse, ill-tempered creature, named Wood, 
and wearing the epaulets of a Lieutenant, was in charge. 
This low-bred, cowardly fellow took from them their money, 
watches, liquors, and every thing except their clothing. 

He had the whole party stripped and searched by his dirty 
Dutch sergeant and corporal, in a room filled with handcuffs and 
gyves, with an armed sentry at the door ; and it is more than 
likely that if one of the prisoners, from a tight boot or other 
cause, had stamped heavily, the frightened Lieutenant would' 
have ordered them to bo shot. 

On the night of their arrival, they, with a large number of 
other prisoners, were crowded into a room where most of 
them were made sick, and some were near dying. In the 
14 



210 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

morning tlie Judge and Mr. Powell, for permanent quarters, 
were placed in a small arched room, where the apex could he 
touched with the hand, and the rise of the arch was only- 
three feet from the floor. In this cell or den were crammed 
twelve human beings, with their baggage, beds, cooking- 
utensils, table, table-ware, chairs, water arrangements, etc., 
and it required much study and mechanical ingenuity to pro- 
perly dispose of the bedding during the day, and the other 
furniture at niffht. There is not a murderer in one of our 
jails or penitentiaries who has not equal or better accom- 
modations than these gentlemen had, who were imprisoned 
from mere political malice. 

It is unnecessary to speak of the outrages they endured in 
this fort — damp, dirty, and disagreeable as it was, under the 
management of such a creature as commanded it in 1862. 

On the first day of October, 1862, ]Mr. Powell was trans- 
ferred to Fort Delaware, by orders from Washington ; to which 
place he had been preceded, a few days, b}^ Judge Carmichael. 
This was an amelioration of their condition, brought about 
l)y the influence of such friends as Hon. James A. Pearce 
and lion. Eeverdy Johnson, Senators of Maryland, AVilliam 
A. Spencer, Esq., and others, w^hose earnest endeavors were 
unequal to the task of releasing the citizens of their State, 
so illegally and wantonly imprisoned and abused, from the 
clutches of the tyrant who then controlled the Government. 

Mr. Lincoln, to whom Judge Carmichael sent a copy of his 
charge to the grand jury, with a statement of the facts of 
his illegal arrest, expressed to Senator Pearce his conviction 
that these gentlemen ought to be discharged ; but added, 
that Stanton would not consent to it ; thus proving that that 
Jacobin ruled his weak master. 

. At Fort Delaware, it is due to Major Burton, then in com- 
mand, to say that, he deported himself toward the prisoners 
as an oflicer and gentleman ; and never descended from his 
position, in either capacity, to an act of meanness or oppres- 
sion. They were allowed on parole the privilege of the en- 
tire grounds of the Fort for exercise and amusement, and 



ISAAC C. W. POWELL. 211 

all tlie comforts which they could procure or receive from 
friends to alleviate the gloom and outrage of imprisonment. 

On the 7th of Decemher, 1862, (Judge Carmichael having 
been released by order about a week before,) Colonel Perkins, 
the new commandant of the Fort, who had superseded Major 
Burton a few days previously, (for his kindness to the pris- 
oners,) entered the room of Mr. Powell at eleven o'clock at 
night, and informed him that he was no longer a prisoner, 
as an order had come from Mr. Stanton for his release. Ilis 
room-mates and fellow-suiFerers were Dr. E. S. Sharpe, of 
Salem, New Jersey, and Hon. Madison Y. Johnson, of Ga- 
lena, Illinois. 

Colonel Perkins was a regular United States officer of the 
"West Point stamp, and discharged his duties most courteously 
and properly. 

On the following morning, Mr. Powell, at the Colonel's 
request, called at his office, and read the following order, (of 
which he desired an official copy;) but Colonel Perkins, not 
wishing to place Mr. Stanton in any danger, would only 
authorize Mr. Powell to make a transcript of the order him- 
self. This he did, and called the attention of both Colonel 
Perkins and ISIajor Burton to its correctness. It came by 
telegraph, and in these words : 

"Washington, D. C, December G, 1862. 
" To Commanding Officer, Fort Delaware : 

" You will immediately release I. C. W. Powell, a prisoner, who 
is said to have been arrested at the same time with Judge Car- 
michael, and who is said to be now in Fort Delawai'e. 

Edwin M. Stanton, 
Secretary of War." 

Thus did Edwin M. Stanton ignore the facts which were 
not only officially, but personally known to him ; for both 
by the records of his office, and by the application of personal 
friends of the prisoners, was he well-informed of the where- 
abouts of Mr. Powell ; and yet in his order for discharge, he 
quibbles in saying that Mr. Powell is said to have been arrcste<i 



212 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

at the same time with Judge Carmichael^ and is said to he now in 
Fort Delaware. 

Mr. Powell was greeted on his return liome by a rush of 
the citizens of Easton to meet and welcome him ; and after 
discharging his official duties for the two successive terms of 
the court, was again, by an unanimous vote of the convention, 
nominated for the position of State Attorney. 

On the same day he was re-arrested, together with some 
twenty other gentlemen composing the Democratic ticket, 
just nominated, and some prominent members of the nom- 
inating convention, and informed that, by order of the mili- 
tary authority then in power under the Provost Marshal, no 
Democratic ticket would l)e allowed to be presented for the 
suffrages of the people of that county. A new Clerk was 
elected to the place, because no one was allowed to oppose 
him, but only by about one-fifth of the vote of the county. 
He died soon after, and the vacancy was filled by appointment 
of the quasi Judge of the hour. The term of office of the 
late incumbent expired on the 1st of January, 1868, and Mr. 
Powell was re-elected to the place from which he had been 
twice ejected by military force. lie now holds his position, 
sanctioned by the sentiments of the people ; and will be re- 
spected and honored long after the mantle of oblivion shall 
have fallen on the names of his persecutors. 



JAMES COR BAN NAYLOR 

TAMES CORBAX NAYLOR was born April 22, 1842, 
*J in Wirt Count}', Virginia. His father's name was Jamef? 
Naylor, son of "William Naylor, one of the first settlers of 
Viro;inia. He was a wheelwright by trade, a pioneer most of 
his life, and a Methodist minister for about sixty 3'ears. 
He died February 9, 1862, nearly ninety-one years of age. 
James C. Naylor was born when his father was seventy years 
old. His mother, Adaline Naylor, was the daughter of 
Esquire David P. Morgan, of Virginia, descended from the 
family of David Morgan, the " Indian fighter." 

Mr. Naylor received a common school education only, and 
this mostly from his father. He was reared on a farm, but 
his father being in eas}- circumstances, his youth was spent 
in reading, the study of nature, and writing poetry, of which 
last he was especially fond. Most of his effusions were writ- 
ten for self-amusement, but many of them have found way 
into the public prints. 

In 1860, at the age of eighteen, he made a vigorous canvass 
for Douglas in Clark County, Iowa, to which his father had 
removed in 1856. He was always immovably fixed in his 
political principles, and unmistakably plain in his method of 
defending them. Abolitionism (or destructionism, as he 
called it) never received a smile from him, and he lost no 
opportunity to denounce it in the roundest terms. While 
this endeared him to his political friends, it raised a storm 
of opposition on the part of his enemies, which came near 
ending in the destructi(m of his life. Upon the election of 
Mr. Lincoln, he pro[)hcsied war, but declared himself opposed 
to both secession and disunion, and in favor of compromise. 
When secession became a fact, he still cherished a hope of 

213 



214 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

an amicable adjustment, and declared, witli General Scott 
and Beeclier, that " secession would be but the dust in the 
balance compared with war." 

On the 27th day of August, 1862, in the twentieth year of 
his age, he was arrested by an armed mob, calling themselves 
soldiers, on a charge (as they verbally stated) of discouraging 
enlistments, and treasonable utterances against the President. 
On the same day he was taken to Osceola, under promise of 
trial, in company with Judge John Beal, "a man sixty years 
of age, and at that time an invalid. This man had been 
brutally driven from his house at the point of the bayonet, 
without the opportunity of bidding farewell to his weeping 
family. On the next day, J. U. Lafollett, of the same neigh- 
borhood, was arrested and taken to Osceola on the same 
charge. Here they remained for three days, when they were 
removed to Des Moines, where they were incarcerated for 
two weeks, by order of the United States Marshal, Iloxie. 
All inquiries as to the cause of arrest, or the time of trial, 
were answered by brutish indignities. 

Their fare consisted of indilierent victuals, in quantity 
scarcely sufficient to sustain life. They had no bedding, ex- 
cept a buffalo robe, which was tilled with vermin. Here they 
were cut otf from all communication with the outside world, 
except such as was approved by their custodian, a man named 
Alexander Bowers. 

After two weeks' confinement at Des Moines, the prisoners 
were removed at night (increased in number by the addition 
<)f C. 0. Mann, who was arrested on a similar charge, and 
nil ironed like murderers!) to ISTewton Jail, in Jasper County, 
where they were well treated for one week. 

Tlience they were removed, in irons, in company with 
seven others from Madison County, arrested on similar 
charges, to Davenport, on the Mississippi, and from that 
place to Camp McClellan, near by. Here they all remained 
until the 9th of December, 1862, excei)t Judge Beal, who 
was released on the Ist. 

Their treatment here, though now proven to be not past 



JAMES CARBIN N A Y L O R. 215 

endurance, is past description. Arrested in summer clothes, 
they remained until the 16th of October in an open shanty, 
which had been occupied by soldiers during the warm season, 
still later used as a cavalry stable, and was now considered a 
suitable place of confinement for prisoners of state, whose 
only violation of law was that they had advocated obedience 
to law, at all times, by all men. 

The north and south entrances of this frigid abode were 
always open, and the sides were full of cracks, large enough 
to admit the passage of a man's hand, ^o fire whatever 
was allowed, and the only sleeping accommodations were 
loose boards to lie upon, and one blanket to each prisoner for 
a covering. 

The victuals were in keeping with other things. The 
prisoners were compelled to march out, and eat at a table in 
the open air, regardless of rain or snow. 

When Mr. K"aylor appealed to the authorities for better 
treatment, he was informed that " such treatment is good 
enough for rebels." To this he replied, " Your hearts are 
colder than the weather, but not so open as our house. But 
mark you ! you will get fire in the next world for refusing it 
to us in thisy 

On the 16th of October, the quarters were changed. Biit 
such a change ! They were told they should have fire. This 
news itself warmed them. But if the fire had been mixed 
with brimstone, the disappointment would not have been 
greater. They were removed to a shanty which had been 
used as a chapel ; but, as the camp increased, it had been 
converted into a sink, without any change in its condition, 
except such as was made with a spade. They were taken 
into this place, where there was a fire, which rendered their 
condition much worse. The prisoners hastened to the cracks, 
'(which were, fortunately, numerous,) tore open a window, 
which had been boarded up, and gladly allowed \\\& fire to go 
out, in order to get rid of the horrible stench. Here they 
were allowed straw beds, but no more covering. After some 
time, almost an eternity of distress, they obtained means of 



216 AMEBIC AN BASTILE. 

renovating the floor. But cliill December winds would not 
Tbe tempered by a small stove in such a tenement. 

They appealed for means to stop the crevices. This request 
was granted them the day before their release. 

On the 9th of December they were set free in the streets 
of Davenport, on parole, without trial or explanation, ragged, 
dirty, sick, and half starved, nearly three hundred miles from 
home, and without money. • By the kindness of Alfred Ed- 
wards, Esq., they were enabled to reach home alive. On Mr. 
Naylor's return to Osceola, he was met and welcomed b}^ an 
immense concourse of enthusiastic friends, who had convened 
for that purpose. 

But Mr. Naylor's persecutions and sufferings did not end here. 
In September, 1864, when he was at home, two vagabonds, dis- 
p-racinfiT the name of soldiers, who were home on furlough, 
robbed the neighboring house of Rev. Thomas Gobel, and so 
threatened the old man's life that he deemed it unsafe to 
remain, and accepted the protection of his neighbors until 
he could make necessary preparations to leave. jSIr. ISTay- 
lor and eight others, viz., Oliver Morgan, A\^illiam Evans, 0. 
P. Gideon, H. B. Stover, Garot Shippy, John Shi2:)py, Graig 
and John Conner, repaired to the house in the evening to 
afford the necessary j)rotection. IS'ext morning at daylight 
they found themselves surrounded by a numerous armed 
mob. Immediate preparations were nuide for defence. By 
12 o'clock M., the mob had increased to about three hun- 
dred. But the besieged kept them at bay, defi/ing an attack. 
Einally it was agreed that the besieged should go quietly 
before a Justice of the Peace without arms, and allow infor- 
mation to be filed and have a legal trial. But as soon as they 
had vacated the house and left their arms, they were basely 
seized as prisoners of war and brutally treated. 

It should have been stated, that Conner left the house as 
soon as the mob appeared, was followed to his own house by 
a part of the mob, and in company with another man brutally 
murdered that night. The prisoners were taken to Osceola 
and kept there through the night. 



JAMES CARBIN NAYLOR. 217 

The next morning, after tlie most fiendish insults, they 
were started under guard for Des Moines. A few miles on 
the way, they were overtaken by an order to " have ISTaylor, 
Morgan, Gobel, the two Shippys, and Evans shot, and the 
others released, as there is fighting to do at another place." 
This order was countermanded before the bloodthirsty cow- 
ards had time to execute it. 

The prisoners were taken to Indianola, and after Evans 
liad been beaten over the head with a musket, and the others 
badly abused, (amid the applause of the bystanders, political 
scorpions,) the commandant ordered them to be put in a dun- 
geon over night ; and in a damp underground cell, on a wet 
stone floor, with a murderer and a horse-thief overhead, with- 
out bedding, and with the ofi'ensive atmosphere from the 
room occupied by the malefactors, the prisoners spent a night, 
worse than death. 

!N^ext morning everything was changed. The prisoners 
were well treated, hurried into wagons, after a good break- 
fast, driven within ten miles of Osceola, and released. 

The malignant captors had heard that the roads, on the 
way to Des Moines, showed evident signs of lurking thunder, 
and being informed that the arrest itself was a crime, they 
were glad to get out of the scrape. Several unsuccessful 
attempts to murder Mr. iN'aylor were afterward made. 

Being pecuniarily reduced by outrage and the suspension 
of his business for almost five years, he is now struggling to 
support his family. Firm, however, in his principles, and 
a bold, able denunciator of lawless tyranny, he hopes to live 
to see fanaticism and usurpation swept from the land. 



HOX. rillA^EAS C. WRIGHT. 

HO^. rilllN^EAS C. A\^RIGIIT, now a resident of the city 
of IsTew York, is a native of liome, Oneida County, 
State of ISTew York, and was forty-four years of age at the 
time of his arrest. He removed from 'New York to IS'ew Orleans, 
thence to St. Louis, about a year prior to the beginning of 
the war, and when arrested, was a citizen of Missouri. He 
was incarcerated fifteen months — one day in Fort Wayne, 
eleven months in Fort Lafayette, and four months in Fort 
Warren, and was never permitted to know of what he was 
accused, nor who was his accuser. 

On the morning of the 27th of April, 1864, he was at 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, on business, and was arrested at 
the " Rathbun House," by Captain Wilson, of the 20th In- 
fantry, United States Army, commanding Fort Wayne. 

The order for his arrest ran thus : 

"You will proceed to the Russell House, in the city of Detroit, 
or wherever else he may be found, and arrest P. C. Wright, 
formerly a New Orleans lawyer, whose plantation and slaves 
now confiscated, who is now staying at said house. You will 
take him to Fort Wayne in a carriage; treat him with courtesy 
as a gentleman. You will confine him in a room by himself, and 
make him comfortable. You will allow no one to communicate 
with him You will be careful to secure any papers he may 
have with him. 

(Signed) J. Randolph Smith, 

Colonel U. S. A., 
Commanding Department of Michigan." 

This order was placed in the hands of Captain Wilson a 
few daj^s after Mr. Wright had started from Detroit, for 
Grand Rapids. Learning of his absence from Detroit, the 

218 



PHINEAS C. WRIGHT. 219 

Captain followed him, stopping at all tlie important towns 
along the line, until he found Mr. W. at the Eathhun House. 
He was courteous in the performance of his duty. He had 
been in the " Old Army " twenty years, and had been pro- 
moted from the ranks as a guerdon of merit. On making 
the arrest, he stated his business to Mr. "Wright in a few 
words, and handed him the order for his arrest, remarking, 
" I am charged especially to treat you as a gentleman, and 
was assured that I would have no occasion to do otherwise." 
Mr. Wright replied, "I shall give you no trouble, sir." The 
Captain then said, "I shall take an apartment in the sleeping 
car to Detroit, to-night, and no one shall know of your arrest 
from my words or actions," Then stepping to the door, 
Captain Wilson called in a man whom he introduced to Mr. 
Wright as " Mr. Cutcher, a detective." The party then pro- 
ceeded to the prisoner's room, to " secure any papers he had 
with him." This being done. Captain Wilson left the pris- 
oner in charge of Detective Catcher, and did not again appear 
until 4 o'clock p.m., when he met them at the depot, and all 
took seats in the cars. 

They arrived in Detroit at 7 o'clock the following morning. 
As they vvere emerging from the cars the Captain perceived 
the provost guard drawn up in line in the depot. He became 
much excited, and requesting Mr. W. to take his seat, he 
stepped up to the guard and ordered them to their quarters. 
He then came back to the cars, and, accompanied l)y Mr. 
AYright and the detective, walked to the " Diddle House," 
near by, for breakfast. 

Arriving there, the Captain stepped to the office, and ad- 
dressing the clerk, said : " I want a private room with a tire, 
and breakfast for three. I have a prisoner of state, and I 
don't want to expose him to unpleasant curiosity." This 
was said in an undertone, and was plainly not intended for 
the ear of Mr. Wright. But having beard it, he protested 
against the "private room." The large dining-room, being 
open, looked warm and cheerful in that frosty morning, and 
no guests being astir at that early hour, he induced Captain 



220 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

Wilson to take breakfast in the dining-room ; after whicli, 
lighting their cigars, they took seats in a close carriage, and 
were driven toward Fort Wayne, three miles distant. 

The party had proceeded about three squares when the 
carriage was stopped, aud a long, lean, lathy, and cadaverous 
individual thrust his countenance into the open door of the car- 
riage, and squeaked forth in a cracked voice, " Good morning, 
Capt'n ! We made a big arrest yesterday ; we got a great 
lecturer — " The fellow did not finish what he had evidently 
intended to say, for Captain Wilson, flushed with anger, 
cried out sternly, " Drive on, and don't stop again until I tell 
you." He proved to be, as Mr. W. afterward learned, an 
itinerant preacher, then a chaplain with some volunteers, and 
had been subsequently promoted to a post on the provost 
guard. The prisoner felt thankful to the fellow, for he had 
unwittingly given him the only clue to the cause of his arrest 
he ever received. About two weeks previously he had read 
a lecture to a large and interested audience of citizens, of 
every shade of political sentiment and opinion, at the beauti- 
ful town of St. Clair, near Detroit. 

Arriving at Fort Wayne, Mr. AVright was passed through 
the office and its routine, and conducted to a small but cheer- 
ful room in the third story of the long line of barracks, 
whicli were used as the officers' quarters. A small boy 
brought an armful of wood and kindled a cheerful fire. A 
sentry was placed on the landing at the foot of the half- 
fiight of iron stairs which led to the door of his room. Mr. 
Wright was instructed to call him by a rap on the inside of 
the door, if he wanted anything. 

Presently, Captain Wilson made his appearance, accom- 
panied by Lieutenant Jones, a polite, cultivated young gen- 
tleman, in whose charge he left his prisoner for the day, 
as he himself was going to the city to report to Colonel 
Smith. Mr. Wright immediately asked for books and writ- 
ing materials. Lieutenant Jones presently brought him both, 
of books an armful, and from them the prisoner was assured, 
that he was a gentleman of fine taste and culture. Availing 



PHINEAS C. WEIGHT. 221 

himself of the kindness of Captain Wilson, Mr. Wright ad- 
dressed the following letter to " Colonel J. Randolph Smith, 
commanding Department of Michigan : " 

" Sir : I um your prisoner. May I be permitted to know why 
I am here, and what are the specitic charges against me?" 

Mr. Wright says : " I then gave myself to musing upon 
the scene from my window, which, in the glorious sunlight 
of that lovely spring mo ning, was beautiful beyond descrip- 
tion. The view embraced the entire city of Detroit, with a 
large section of the surrounding plain dotted with neat sub- 
urban cottages and a few beautiful mansions, with finely im- 
proved grounds ; and on the opposite side of the river, a large 
portion of Windsor, the neat, pretty hamlet of Sandwich, 
with a long stretch of beautiful shore and a wide expanse of 
])ack country, all glorious in the freshness of young verdure. 
Further upward, ' Belle Isle ' seemed to float like a beautiful 
emerald on the silvery bosom of the waters ; and still beyond, 
the eye could take in the vast marshes known as the ' St. Clair 
Flats.' The broad, green river was literally covered with 
vessels, sailing and in tow, that seemed rushing in flocks like 
migratory fowls to the 'Upper Lakes.' Indeed, a more en- 
trancing scene than that which greeted my first gaze from a 
prison-room is rarely enjoyed by mortals, even m freedom. I 
was in a spell, real, palpable. I mused of liberty, and for 
the first time began to estimate and appreciate its priceless 
worth. Then my gaze would linger and fix itself upon the 
Canada shore. There nature seemed to glow and bloom in 
quiet loveliness, as if conscious of the genial sway of peace. 
There the genius of liberty seemed to have found sure refuge 
from the madness which had rudely driven and scourged her 
from the land where our sires erst enshrined her ; and I 
thought she seemed weeping in sorrow for the shameful 
degradation of their sons ! 

" I turned to look upon the noble city, when my eyes 
instinctively seemed to fall upon the dome of the ' City Hall,' 
which, as it glistened with the silver light, seemed in playful 



222 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

wantonness to throw back the warm kisses of the ardent 
sunbeam — aj ! upon that lofty roof hard by — for beneath is 
one who knows not yet my present' sorrows, who, througli 
sunny years has nestled in my heart of hearts ! Thou 
art still unconscious of my fate ! Then sleep on ! Memory, 
how faithful is thy record to my first hours in my cell ? " 

About four o'clock, Captain Wilson returned and presented 
Mr. Wright with the following answer from Colonel Smith : 

"Sir: I am in possession of your letter, and will state that 1 
was ordered to arrest you, by telegraph from General Heintzel- 
man, on last Satui-day p.m. 
"I am, sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 
(Signed) J. E. Smith, Col. U.S.A., 

Commanding, etc. 
" Detroit, April 28, 1865." 

About 5 o'clock p.m., Captain Wilson again visited him, 
saying : "I must part with you. I am ordered to deliver 
you to Captain Tyler, of Colonel Smith's staff, who is wait- 
ing below. I am sorry to part with you ; but I hope it is for 
the best. I had promised myself a pleasant time with you." 
After descending to the office, the prisoner was presented to 
Captain Tyler, who, after receiving him politely, remarked : 
" I am ordered to deliver you to Colonel De Radowitz, of 
General Heintzelman's staff, at the Cleveland boat." 

After taking leave of Captain Wilson, Lieutenant Jones, 
and other officers of the garrison, he was placed in a carriage, 
and driven to the wharf. Of the two above-named gentle- 
men, Mr. Wright says : " If Captain Wilson or Lieutenant 
Jones be living or dead, I know not ; but I knOw that their 
memory will live with me while my heart can recognize one 
emotion of gratitude." At the boat, they found Colonel De 
Eadowitz in waiting. He received them courteously, remark- 
ing : " I have an unpleasant duty to perform, Mr. Wright ; 
I am ordered to conduct you to Xew York, and deliver you 



PHINEAS C. WRIGHT. 223 

to General Dix, but I shall not make myself disagreeable to 
you." Mr. "Wright thanked the Colonel, and informed him 
that he need give himself no occasion for the least anxiety on 
his account. From that moment, until he was delivered to 
Colonel Burke, he was not subjected to the slightest con- 
straint or the least surveillance- by Colonel De R., who treated 
him, in every respect, as a travelling companion. 

Mr. Wright remarks : 

" We took leave of Captain Tyler, and went on board the 
boat as the sun was setting. We proceeded to an elegant 
state-room, or two state-rooms connecting ; one of which 
was mine, and the other was occupied by Colonel De R. ; 
and, leaving there our satchels and heavy overcoats', we took 
seats in the ladies' cabin. Soon came in Cutcher, with six 
soldiers, and stood before us. Colonel De R. immediately 
arose, much excited, and sternly ordered Cutcher to go with 
his men at once to the forward part of the boat, and remain 
there. Subsequently, all but two were sent back, and those 
two accompanied us to !N^ew York ; but I did not see them 
until we were crossing on the Jersey Ferry, when I heard 
Colonel De R. order them to go to the Park Barracks, and 
reiriain there until further orders. 

" I feel constrained to record here my impressions of Colo- 
nel De Radowitz. He was about twenty-four years of age, 
was an oflicer in the army of the King of Prussia, and was 
on ' leave of absence ' for t^wo years , that he might ' see ser- 
vice in America.' He was first on the staft' of General 
McDowell, then of General McClellan, and last of General 
Ileintzelman, which station he then held as ' aide-de-camp.' 
He was dressed in neat undress uniform, and wore a service- 
sword, but no revolver, the inevitable and disgusting append- 
age of our volunteers. Over all, he wore a light overcoat — 
not uniform. He was tall, graceful, refined and polished in 
manners, and withal a handsome man among a thousand. 
A more perfect gentleman I have never met. He pronounced 
the English language correctly, but with a slight foreign 
accent. Daring our whole progress to N'ew York, he essayed 



224 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

to entertain me as if lie would lightest my heavy load of sor- 
row, wliicli seemed almost insupportable. 

" I contemplate tlie strange fact, unaccountable even now, 
that from the first moment of my arrest, and during my 
entire journey to Isew York, I never thought of Fort Lafay- 
ette, and least of all tilings, the possibility that I was des- 
tined for eleven months to its dismal, living death." 

About one o'clock on the 30th of April the party arrived 
in Xew York city. On landing from the ferry-boat the 
prisoner was placed in a carriage, accompanied by Cutcher. 
Colonel De Eadowitz stepped aside as if seeking some one, 
and was met by a young man who handed him a packet, in 
a large Government envelope. Immediately on receiving the 
packet and reading it, he stepped to the carriage and took a 
seat beside the prisoner. lie seemed much agitated, and the 
carriage had proceeded some distance in the direction of the 
Battery, when he broke the ominous silence with these words : 
'" I have bad news for you, Mr. Wright, very bad news ! " 
The prisoner inquired quickly — not suspecting its purport 
— what the news was like ? " / (un ordered to carry you to 
Fort Lafayette" replied Colonel De Radowitz with visible 
emotion. They proceeded in silence. Arriving at Fort Ham- 
ilton, they descended a flight of steps to the wherry, and 
were conveyed across the channel to Fort Lafayette. 

Ascending to the Adjutant's ofiiee, Mr. Wright was form- 
ally delivered to Colonel Martin Burke, a man apparently 
seventy, years of age, with features as hard as iron. His 
face plainly spoke " orders " in every feature and lineament. 
He looked as though he could stand by the rack, thumbscrew, 
or gibbet unmoved by the agonies of his victim, if " ordered." 
He was the man for the Bastile. 

After bidding farewell to Colonel De Kadowitz and Cut- 
cher, the former of whom left him with cheering words, the 
victim of despotism was passed through the routine of office, 
relieved of his valuables, and thence conducted to casemate 
N^o. 3, scratched in the paint on the door-casing of which 
were the words : 

"Who enters here leaves hope behind." 



PHINEAS C. WRIGHT. 225 

We again quote from Mr. AV right : 

" Here, during my eleven months, there were never less 
than eight, and often thirteen men. "We were locked up 
after being counted at ' retreat,' and released at ' reveille^ 
but in the day we w^ere permitted to walk on three sides of 
the area along the borders of the parade grounds. "We were 
provided with iron bedsteads, which folded against the walls 
during the day and were let down at night, and with good 
mattresses, pillows, sheets, and blankets in abundance ; but 
these were not furnished by the Government, but were the 
gift of the ladies of Baltimore to the members of the Legisla- 
ture of Maryland, who were arrested by General McClellan, 
and thrust into Forts Lafayette and "Warren, some of whom 
were detained thirteen months. Government furnished no- 
thing for the prisoners save very plain food, scantily dealt out 
by a thieving commissary, who was subsequently detected, 
and fled from the punishment he so well deserved. I will 
not write his name, lest I should lighten by a shade, in com- 
parison, the character of the mean fellow who succeeded 
him. His successor was Lieutenant , of the 17th In- 
fantry, U. S. A. He had been, in the beginning of the war, 
a member of the noted 'Shriver Guard,' of W^heeling, "Va., 
but deserted his friends and the cause of his State for ' loil ' 
service, which paid better. He will know himself in this 
brief sketch, and will be long remembered by many prisoners. 

" At the period of my arrival there were about ninety 
prisoners in the Fort, about sixty of whom were -prisoners 
of war, including blockade-runners, and citizens picked up in 
various localities to count for exchange. Of these latt^r^ 
none had been in the service. Most of them were too old 
and infirm for any service. 

" Later came Joseph Howard, Jr., of the Proclamation 
notoriety, whom Colonel Burke would always call ' Bogus 
Joe.' He was a man of good heart, sprightly intellect, and 
fine culture, quick, lively sensiliilitios, and withal a most 
genial gentleman and a good companion. I missed liim 
when he left us. "With him came Mr. Mallison, his coad- 
15 



226 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

jutor, who was popular witli all the prisoners through his 
good-nature, genial mirthfulness, and lively wit, which seemed 
ever gushing from an exhaustless fountain. 

" The monotony in Lafayette was often broken by tlie 
arrival of the small steamer ' Henry Burden,' bringing fresh 
prisoners, but more often visitors, and still oftener the ' Com- 
mission ' and Judge Advocate Bolles. There was not a pri- 
soner in the Fort, except the accredited ' prisoners of war,' 
save myself, who had not been called up before that august 
tribunal once, twice, or thrice. Every time the boat's whis- 
tle was heard, the boys would cry out, 'Fresh fish,' meaning 
new prisoners, or ' Commish,' or ' Bolles.' That cry always 
raised my anxious expectation. I would fancy my trial was 
near, and I never doubted that my release would follow ; but 
I learned that I was not answerable to that jurisdiction, but 
that I was the ' President's prisoner.' 

" I must omit, for want of room, the narration of many 
notable incidents in my experience of life in Lafayette. I 
cannot do justice to my own feelings, nor to the memories 
which I shall cherish through life, without mentioning the 
kindness which I received from all the prisoners, without a 
single exception, and also the uniform good feeling that pre- 
vailed among them. There were many men of education 
and fine culture. We were denied the advantage of religious 
instruction from the outer world. Xo spiritual friend and 
counsellor could come within those dark walls to say good 
words to us. In our mess, and in other apartments were 
several gentlemen who were members of the Episcopal 
Church. A friend sent to me, l)y my own request, eighteen 
prayer-books, and a book of church music. I read service 
every Sunday morning at 11 o'clock, in the ' Battery,' which 
would scarcely contain all the prisoners, and there were few 
who did not attend regularly. We had several young men 
who sang well. We had musical instruments — flutes and 
violins — and our Sunday choir might have been welcomed 
in any church in the city of Xew York, or elsewhere." 



PHINEAS C. WRIGHT. 227 

On the SOtli of August, 1864, Mr. Wright sent the folloAv- 
ing letter to Mr. Lincohi, which was never answered. Other 
similar letters were addressed to the President by the pris- 
oner and his friends, asking for a trial or release ; but they 
availed nothing, although Mr. Lincoln several times promised 
to grant one or the other. Similar applications were like- 
wise made to Mr. Dana, and, after his succession, to President 
Johnson — but all to no purpose, as far as known. The letter 
reads as follows : 

" Fort Lafayette, August 30, 1864. 
"To Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the LTnited States: 

'^Sir : I have been a prisoner in this fortress four months this 
day. I was arrested at Grand Eapids, Michigan, on the 27th day 
of April last, 'by order of the President, through General Heint- 
zelraan,' and by Colonel J. E. Smith, commanding Department 
of Michigan. Until this hour I am unadvised of any charge or 
charges against me, or of any special cause why I was arrested. 
My position is most painful and mortifying. In regard to my 
political sentiments generally, or my opinions touching the mo- 
mentous questions of the day, I am prepared, as I ever have been, 
to make a frank avowal of them. In regard to my actions 
touching the questions at issue, or the parties to that issue, since 
the commencement of the war, I have nothing which I desire to 
conceal. I am a citizen of the State of Missouri, resident in the 
city of St. Louis, by profession a lawyer. The story of my 
private life, or of my relations, of blood, or social, cannot interest 
you just now. 

" From you, as Chief Magistrate and Executive of my Govern- 
ment, I have the right, respectfully, to demand justice. As a 
citizen, I w^ould fain appeal to your humane and Christian sym- 
pathies. I am incapable of crime, or of premeditated wrong. 
I dislike notoriety of any kind, and now respectfully request 
that I may be permitted to communicate personally with some 
one in whom you may confide, who shall be empowered to set 
me at libertj-, in the event that he shall be satisfied that there is 
no just cause for my further detention. I trust that my motives 
in this communication will not be misapprehended. 



228 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

" The welfare of my eountiy, and her restoration to unity, peace, 
and prosperity, have been the burden of my highest aspira- 
tions. I am not a criminal, begging for mercy, but a free citizen 
demanding jW5f(!'c^, to know whereof I am accused, and who is my 
accuser, to be confronted with the witnesses against me, tried by 
the law, and by it be convicted or acquitted. 

"General Dix, as my counsel advises me, and Colonel Burke, 
have both promised that any communication which I might de- 
sire to send to you shall be promptly forwarded to you, if 
proper. 

" I have the honor to subscribe myself with due respect, 

P. C. Wright." 

On the 13th of March, 1865, Mr. Wright was, together 
with seven other political prisoners, transferred to Fort 
"Warren, while the prisoners of war w^erc sent to Fort Dela- 
ware, lie arrived at the Fort the following day, (March 
14,) and was informed, had he arrived the day previously, 
he would have been discharged, with some forty others, of the 
same class who had been released that day. The Fort \vas 
commanded by Major Allen, U. S. A., and was garrisoned 
by a detachment of the 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, 
Governor Andrews's pet corps, under the command of Major 
Appleton, in all about four hundred men. They were a fine 
body of men, and were uniformly kind and just toward all 
the prisoners. Among the notable prisoners there, were 
Commodore Tucker, of the Confederate ISTavy, Generals Ed- 
ward Johnson, E^vell, Jackson, Marmaduke, Barton, and 
many others of General Lee's army. These general ofiicers 
were separated from the other prisoners, and were assigned 
very comfortable cpiarters on the officers' side of the Fort. 
They w^ere allowed all reasonable privileges, but were not 
l>ermitted to speak to the other prisoners. Mr. Wright was 
assigned casemate !N"o. 6, in which Avere about twenty-five 
prisoners. There were seven of these rooms appropriated to 
the prisoners, but two, IS'os. 6 and 7, w"ere never locked at 
night, as were the other five, as the inmates of the former 
were under parole. 



PHINEAS C. WRIGHT. 229 

The prisoners were privileged to walk on tLe ramparts 
each day as long as they chose ; but having been conducted 
thither by a corporal in the morning, they were compelled to 
remain out, or if returned to their rooms, they could not go 
out again that day. The two rooms 6 and 7 were not 
so crowded as the rest, which contained fifty, and two of 
them between sixty and seventy persons. It is surprising 
that there was so little sickness among the prisoners ; but the 
most of them were young men who had been well nurtured, 
and were cleanl}' in their habits. Early in April he was re- 
moved from ]Sro. 6 to a very pleasant room under the officers' 
quarters, and for eight weeks was permitted to remain there, 
the last four of which he was alone. 

About the last of April, Mr. Wright was informed by 
Lieutenant Woodman, commissary of the prisoners, that 
Major Bolles, Judge Advocate on General Dix's Commission, 
was at the Fort, and had come to see him. The Lieutenant 
then called a corporal and directed him to escort Mr. Wright 
to the august presence of the Major, who occupied the room 
of an officer in a distant part of the Fort. The Major re- 
ceived him graciously and l)ade him be seated. After ex- 
changing a few commonplace remarks about the weather, 
the prisoner's health, and the manner in which he had en- 
dured his incarceration, and boasting of some of the exploits 
while in the performance of his official duties as Judge Ad- 
vocate in West Virginia and elsewhere, he said: "I have 
called to see you, Mr. Wright, upon very important business, 
and I am authorized to propound to you certain questions, 
and to assure you that upon your answer to those questions 
will depend your immediate release, or your further deten- 
tion." Mr. Wright became very angry and much excited 
at the insolent tone in which he had been addressed, but 
calming himself, he said, " You do not know me, sir, or you 
would not thus insult me. I will hear your questions, and 
will answer them truly if I can, or if I shall deem it proper 
to answer them, whether I shall be released now, or remaiii 
here to the end of my natural life. What I shall say will be 



230 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

tlie truth, whether it should suit your purpose or not." After 
profuse apologies, he said : " I am Judge Advocate ou the 
staff of General Dix, and am here in my official capacity. I 
have had much experience of late as a Judge; I am pushing 
inquiries relative to that dreadful affair of Good Friday last," 
pulling some papers from a large envelope ; " I refer to the 
assassination of President Lincoln." Springing to his feet, 
Mr. "Wright exclaimed, "What do you mean, sir?" The 
Judge Advocate hade Mr. W. to he calm, and cast his eye 
toward the stalking sentry at the door, with an ominous 
glance toward the prisoner, which bespoke power. Then 
opening a paper, he read its contents, commenting on the sen- 
tences as he read them, lie argued that the prisoner must 
unquestionably be a party to a conspiracy long since organ- 
ized to assassinate President Lincoln, remarking that the 
'■^argument was well drawn, and the conclusion inevitable." 

When the reading of the papers was over, and the infer- 
ences discussed, as far as force of patience on the part of the 
prisoner would allow, the Judge Advocate asked for a state- 
ment of his case, which Mr. Wright freely gave him. BoUes 
listened attentively, and noted accurately his words : 

" I stated that I came from New Orleans to the West in 
the spring of 1857, and in the spring of 1859 I brought my 
family, with our servants, to St. Louis, and settled myself 
there for life, and engaged in the practice of my profession. 
It seemed to me needful to state that, during the latter part 
of 1857, and all of 1858, I had been iu Iowa and Illinois, 
until I went to St. Louis, in the spring of 1859. He took 
down this statement, but used the word *■ citizen,' making me 
to say that I was a citizen of Iowa and Illinois prior to my 
removing to St. Louis. I objected, saying, 'I was never a 
citizen of those States, but was merely a sojourner or denizen.'' 
lie made the correction I desired, and then added, ' You are 
now a citizen of Massachusetts, and are likely to remain so 
for some time to come.' " Thus another 23olitical farce ended, 
and with it died the prisoner's new-born hope of release. 

Mr. Wright remained a prisoner in Fort Warren about 



P H I N E A S C. WRIGHT. 231 

four montlis, and was released from his long and unjust con- 
finement oi ffteen months^ about the first of August, 1865. 
Iso specific charges were ever made against him, nor any trial 
accorded him, unless a just public can pronounce the above 
examination, by Judge Advocate Bolles, a trial. 

In conclusion, Mr. Wright says : 

" I would not cherish a spirit of hatred nor revenge 
toward any man, not even toward one of those who perse- 
cuted me so mercilessly. I would fain believe that they were 
even conscientious in regard to their treatment of me, and 
that they thought themselves to be doing the behests of jus- 
tice in view of a supreme necessity, which, if it had existed, 
would not have justified such outrage upon my rights to 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While I will freely 
ascribe to them proper motives and just considerations, I 
shall demand of them a due respect for my own motives, and 
a just consideration of all my actions touching affairs of 
great public interest and concern. 

"I aver, that from the first hour of the signal epoch which 
"has made up its scroll for the recording angel, I have never 
known but one sentiment in regard to my country, my whole 
country; and that had for its burden her past and future 
renown, through the exaltation of splendid States, each free 
and independent, the grand creation of her sovereign people. 
It is, it was, my simple right, nay more, my highest duty, as 
a free citizen, to scrutinize the conduct of men who had been 
raised to the places of power as servants of the people, and 
to judge their policy in regard to affairs committed to them, 
equally in a season of public emergency which threatened 
the destruction of ail that we hold sacred, and even the 
entire social order, as in time of peace and tranquillity. I 
availed myself of that sacred right, and that was the sum of 
my offending. I shall again and always use that right, 
though the gates of the Bastile should again close behind me, 
and the leaden-winged months once more inscribe afresh the 
horrors which time cannot eftace from my memory. 

" While my soul would fain exalt itself in praise to Almighty 



232 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

God for liis dispensations, whether terrible or joyful, 1 would 
bless anew the tj-rant, my oppressor, and all his myrmidons, 
in that they were, unwittingly, however, His appointed 
agencies for my instruction and exaltation. I have learned 
' how sweet are the uses of adversity ' — how far more pre- 
cious than gold are the lessons which persecution may impart 
to him who will admit into his soul the cheering light of 
sublime faith — how sweetly wisdom comes with her gentle 
insinuations in the darkest hour of trial, though in the sun- 
shine of prosperity and success she had knocked at the door 
only to be scorned and denied admittance 1 How sweetly 
the grateful memories come, troop on troop, to the prisoner 
in his cell — come on the moonbeams, on the wings of 
zephyr, and even upon the harsh breath of the storm as it 
makes tlie voices of midnight revelry around battlement and 
tower. Ay ! some holy recollections are mine ! ye tyrants, 
usurpers, myrmidons of power ! But they can never be yours 1 
never ! Ye have gathered spoils, of war and of fraud — the 
price of blood and the purchase of the soul's virtue ! Ye 
flaunt the gems which meanest power has filched from 
weakness and innocence, until thfe sunlight blushes red in 
their flashing brilliancy ! Ye may gather to these all that 
Golcoiida, Peru, and the unravished bed of the ocean may 
yield, and yet, with their sum twice told, ye may not pur- 
chase the immortal gems and pearls I gathered in your grim 
' Bastile by the Sea 1 ' Your day has come, but its fading 
light proclaims the fearful night ye contemplate with fear 
and trembling, like cowards that await an avenging jus- 
tice without hope ; while your victims wait their morning, 
whose dawning light even now climbs up the heavens to 
their view." 

The following beautiful poem was composed by Mr. Wright 
while a prisoner in Fort Warren : 



PHINEAS C. WRIGHT. 233 



MY BASTILE YEAR. 

Oh ! heavy, sad, and gloomy year ! 

As now thy retrospect I scan. 
Memory waits to drop one tear 

For th' inhumanity of man : 
Thy recor^, traced upon my soul, 

Each burning line instinct with life, 
As though some fiend had marred the scroll, 

Is stained with hate and fear and strife. 

There lingers yet an angry cloud 

Which shuts out every cheering ray; 
I list the thunder, deep and loud. 

And watch the vivid lightnings, play ; 
Anon, that cloud by thunder riven 

And scattered in the lightning's gleam, 
I see beyond a silvery heaven 

Where blessed rays of promise beam. 

I note some weird pictures there. 
And seem to hear th' enraptured strains 

Of wildering accents on the air 

Which zephyr wakes along the plains. 

There Love's enchantments lingering glow 
As now she weaves her magic spell ; 

I list her voice in numbers flow 
Like echoes of a fairy bell. 

Dear Friendship, too, handmaid of love. 
Hath left the impress of her hand, 

As to my questioning heart she 'd prove 
Her kindred with the angel band. 

Now Hope essays her magic powers 

To lend her radiance to the scene, 
Still strives to cheer my weary hours, 

Yet with illusions sweet, I ween ; 
She nestles under fancy's wings, 

And glistens in the beams of noon; 
Now her entrancing carol sings 

And flies me with the waning moon. 

Oft she has sought my casemate cell 
To lure me with a cheering beam, 



234 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

But when the stalking sentries yell 
She flees like phantom of a dream ; 

But still she points me to the skies, 
And leads her sister, Faith, to me, 

That from despair my soul may rise, 
And bright, celestial joys may see. 

Faith, sweet messenger of Heaven 

To every wretched child of earth, 
Now whispers me her mission given 

To tell my soul its heavenly birth ; 
She blends her light with Hope and Love, 

And sheds her pure, transcendent rays 
T' illume the path to realms above. 

Where pleasures dwell through endless days ; 
And Faith brings Patience in her train, 

The virtue gentle, meek, and fair ; 
4 She constant sings her dulcet strains 

With chorus spirits of the air. 

Be still, sad heart I thy murmuring cease, 
And heed the message from above ! 

There 's nought of earth thy pain can ease. 
Make room for Patience, Faith, and Love. 

Now, Memory ! the scroll is thine. 
Essay thereon thy weird skill, 

Bid hate to mar no single line 
By faintest trace of suifered ill. 

Let envy's dull envenomed trace. 

As serpent slimes the fairest flowers, 

Thy precious tablets ne'er deface, 
Nor soil the wings of golden hours. 

Dispel the dark'ning shades of fear 
That come like shadows of the night ; 

Tell my sad heart that God is near, 
He ever will defend the right. 

Let malice ne'er the cup infuse, 

Which angels proffer to my lips, 
Brimful with nectar, pure as dews 

The bee from th' opening rosebud sips: 
Should she, perchance, prevail to blot 

Thy record of my Bastile year. 
Bid Charity conceal the spot. 

Or cleanse it with a shining tear. 



PHINEAS C. WEIGHT. 235 

Oh ! let oblivion's darkest wave 

Roll o'er thy gathered horrors now, 
Or hide them in that welcome grave, 

O'er which eternal waters flow. 

Thy task is done ; bind up the scroll ; 

Bear it in triumph to thy shrine, 
And thither lead my willing soul, 

To dream in pleasures only thine. 



HON. RICHARD H. STAI^TOK 

nVTO more flagrant outrage upon tlie rights of citizens was 
■^ perpetrated during the war, than the arrests made at 
Maysville, Kentucky, on the 2d of October, 1861, by General 
William Nelson. They were not made because the exigencies 
of the military service or the safety of the country demanded 
them, but because a few political leaders, to whom General 
Nelson had surrendered himself, expected to promote their 
party interests, by getting rid of the most influential Demo- 
crats in the community. 

General William Nelson was at that time recruiting his 
l)rigade in Mason, and the adjoining counties, and had estab- 
lished a camp a short distance from Maj'sville. His head- 
quarters were in the city, where he was surrounded by his 
counsel of advisers, a few men who had been the life-long 
enemies of the Democratic party. These men made out a 
proscription list for General Nelson, embracing about twelve 
of the leading and most influential Democrats of the city, 
and urged their arrest and departure from the State. 

On the morning of the 2d of October, 1861, two hundred 
armed soldiers, from the camp, under General Nelson's orders, 
were marched into the city, and stationed at the market- 
house. Squads were sent out, and the following gentlemen, 
whose names had been selected by the political coterie who 
controlled General Nelson, were suddenly seized and placed 
in custody of the armed force at the market-house: the 
Hon. Richard H. Stanton, James H. Hall, Washington B. 
Tottle, Benjamin F. Thomas, Wm. Hunt, Isaac Nelson, 
George Forrester, and William T. Costoe. 

Mr. Stanton had been an influential and leading Democrat, 
who represented his district in Congress, from 1849 to 1855, 

236 



EICHAKD H. STANTON. 237 

and filled other important and responsible public positions. 
He was, at the time of his arrest, the Prosecuting Attorney 
for the judicial district in which he lived, and has since been 
unanimously nominated for Circuit Judge, and elected by a 
majority of about twenty-five hundred. He is now presiding 
as Judge in the Fourteenth Judicial District of Kentucky. 

James' H. Hall was the proprietor of a large flour manu- 
facturing establishment, and a most estimable and worthy 
citizen. Though a decided Democrat, he had never actively 
participated in political strife. 

Washino;ton B. Tottle was a leadino; member of the mer- 
es o 

cantile firm of Pierce, Tottle & Holton, a quiet, amiable gen- 
tleman, who had taken so little part in politics, that his 
Democratic sentiments were absolutely unknown outside of 
his own immediate personal friends. 

Benjamin F. Thomas was the senior member of the firm 
of B. F. & 0. H. P. Thomas, and one of the best-beloved 
citizens of the place ; distinguished for his integrity and pri- 
vate virtues, and, although firm and decided in his political 
sentiments, was always modest and unobtrusive in giving 
them expression. 

"William Hunt was a tobacco merchant, an iipright and' 
worthy citizen, and universally esteemed by the community. 

Isaac Nelson was a liquor and commission merchant, a man 
of generous nature, sterling integrity, and much personal 
popularity 

George Forrester was a Democratic editor, and William 
T. Costoe a young lawyer of fine talents and conversational 
powers. 

John H. Richardson, another merchant of high standing, 
was also upon the proscriptive list, and was arrested ; but, by 
the intercession of some of his friends, was released after a 
short detention. 

Each of these gentlemen was in the quiet pursuit of his 
business when the arrests were made. Others had been de- 
liberately marked as victims, but were cither not in town, 
or received timely warning, and managed to keep out of the 



238 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

way. The sudden seizure of so many of the best, and least 
to be suspected citizens of the town, produced intense alarm 
and indignation, and in a few minutes the whole community 
was aroused. The friends of Mr. Stanton immediately ap- 
plied to the Hon. E. C. Phister, then Circuit Judge, for a 
writ of habeas corpus, which was promptly granted, and 
placed in the hands of the Sheriff. He proceeded to execute 
it, but was prevented by General Nelson and his soldiers. 
The prisoners were then marched through the streets to a 
steamboat in waiting at the wharf, and carried to Cincinnati, 
under charge of a squad of soldiers. After the departure of 
the prisoners, the indignation and excitement of the com- 
munity continued, and became so intense as to alarm the 
valiant General Nelson, and the political conspirators by 
whom he had been induced to commit so wanton and un- 
provoked an outrage, for their personal safety. A regiment 
of soldiers was sent for and brought from Kipley, Ohio, for 
their protection. 

The appearance of this re-enforcement gave General Nelson 
and his friends relief, but caused hundreds of brave and 
gallant men of Mason, and the adjoining counties, to hasten 
into the 'Confederate lines. Not only did the young men 
rush in crowds to the ranks of the Confederate army, but 
many of the very best and worthiest of the old citizens, ter- 
rified by the brutal and wanton arrest of quiet and peaceful 
citizens, and apprehending for themselves like treatment, fled 
for safety to the mountains, and placed themselves under the 
protection of the Confederate Generals Marshall and Wil- 
liams, 

Nothing contributed so much to recruit the armies of the 
Confederacy from Kentucky, as this, and similar outrages 
committed by the Federal authorities upon her citizens. Of 
the ten hundred and thirty-one Confederates who met, 
whipped, and drove General Nelson and his army of three or 
four thousand men from Ivy Mountain in disorder and con- 
fusion, fully one-half were of those who had been compelled 
to leave their homes in Kentucky, under the terror inspired 



EICHARD H. STANTON. 239 

bj arbitrary arrests, and other outrages upon the rights of 
peaceful citizens. The exploit at Ivy Mountain was so dis- 
graceful to General Nelson, that President Lincoln, when he 
heard of it, could not refrain from illustrating it by a charac- 
teristic anecdote, which many will remember, as not less distin- 
guished for its obscenity than for its appropriateness. 

The gentlemen arrested at Maysville had committed no 
offence, done no act, which authorized their arrest, or in any 
manner compromitted themselves as loyal citizens. They 
were never apprised of any charges made against them. 
They were arrested, exiled from the State, and imprisoned, 
for no other reason than being Democrats. They preferred 
to suffer persecution and outrage, rather than sacrifice their 
political convictions. 

Mr. Stanton and his fellow-prisoners were taken to Cin- 
cinnati, and there delivered to General 0. M. Mitchell, then 
in command at that place. Judge Leavitt, of the United 
States District Court, upon the application of Mr. Stanton, 
issued a writ of habeas corpus^ commanding the prisoners to 
be brought before him, that he might inquire into the legal- 
ity of their detention. Here, as at Maysville, the law was 
trampled under foot by the military authorities — General 
Mitchell refusing to allow this great writ of liberty to be 
executed. Congress had not then passed any law suspending 
the writ of habeas corpus. 

The prisoners were hurried off to Camp Chase, where 
they were confined, with two hundred others, in a plank 
enclosure of about one hundred and fifty feet square, during 
the whole of the month of October. When the prisoners 
were thrust into this pen, no particular place was assigned 
them. They were compelled to depend upon the charity of 
those occupying the place before their arrival, for a spot 
upon which to rest themselves. Sixteen men were huddled 
together in each of the little plank shanties within the 
enclosure, and required to eat and sleep, crammed together, 
like 80 many hogs in a railroad car. This the Maysville 
prisoners were compelled to endure for a month. The 



240 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Andersonville prison, or any other in the Confederacy, could 
not have been woi'se in its accommodations than Camp 
Chase, during the month of October, 1861 ; and yet these 
gentlemen were taken from the comforts of their homes and 
thrust into this wretched place, not because they had com- 
mitted any olFence against the laws, but to appease the 
malice of political enemies, or give eclat to the exploits of 
petty military upstarts. 

During the whole period of their confinement in Camp 
Chase, they w^ere without fire to keep them warm, were 
furnished with but one blanket each, and compelled to sleep 
upon the hard floor of their filthy cabin. The food furnished 
])y the Government, consisted of coarse bread, fat bacon, and 
refuse pieces of beef. jN'o negro upon his master's plantation 
ever fared worse 

On the 1st of JsTovember, a cold, rainy, and cheerless day, 
a Lieutenant made his appearance at the door of the Mays- 
ville prisoners, and required them to answer to their names. 
They were then ordered to pack up their baggage and pre- 
pare to leave. They were placed in an omnibus and driven 
to Columbus, where they took the cars, without knowing 
their destination. It was not until some time after the cars 
had left, that the Lieutenant apprised them, that they were 
ordered to Fort Lafayette, in the harbor of New York. 

They reached ISTew York on the 2d of November, and 
entered the Bastile the next morning. They found their 
quarters there more comfortable, and the bearing of the 
jailers more gentlemanly and humane. 

They were kept in Fort Lafayette for two months, and 
then discharged, without having been allowed a trial or even 
informed of any charges which existed against them. Mr. 
Stanton's friends, from various parts of the United States, and 
the friends of his fellow-prisoners, made frequent applications 
to the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, to know- for 
what offence they had been arrested, and upon what charge 
they were detained. The universal response was, that there 
were no charges against them, but that Maryland had been 



EICHARD H. STANTON. 241 

kept in tlie Union bj arresting her best citizens, and that 
Kentucky should be treated in the same manner. 

The insufferable meanness of Mr. Seward was well illus- 
trated by an incident which occurred during Mr. Stanton's 
confinement. Some friends of the Secretary had fallen into 
the hands of the Confederates, whom it was desirable to have 
released by exchange. It was thought Mr. Stanton's desire 
to be released would incline him to accept readily a jprojposi- 
tionof exchange for one of Mr. Seward'' s friends. A IsTew York 
lawyer was commissioned to go to the Fort, suggest the pro- 
position to Mr. Stanton, and, if possible, obtain his consent. 
The commission was executed ; the lawyer made his proposi- 
tion, but went back with this indignant message to the Sec- 
retary : " Go, sir, and tell Mr. Seward, who sent you, that I 
am a citizen of Kentucky, unjustly deprived of my liberty, 
and that I will not leave this prison unless unconditionally 
discharged. I am no Confederate, and the Government has 
no right to make me one against my consent, and shall not do 
it if I can prevent it." 

Judge Stanton was released on the 26th of December, 1861, 
after an imprisonment of nearly two months in Fort Lafay- 
ette, and after the wily Secretary had vainly exhausted his 
resources to entrap him into an admission of guilt by an 
exchange. 
16 



JOHJS" W. SMITH, alias THE WANDERING JEW. 

" I am as homeless as the wind that moans 
And wanders through the streets." 

rPHE WANDERING JEW, as Mr. Jolin W. Smith was 
-*- familiarlj called during his sojourn in the Old Capitol 
Prison, was an old man, of not less than sixty-five years, 
blind of one eye, a homeless, and apparently friendless wan- 
derer. He was a native of one of the counties of Virginia 
contiguous to Washington, but had left his native State in 
his youth, and wandered to the West, where he spent most 
of his subsequent life on the frontiers. He migrated to Kan- 
sas soon after that portion of the country became organized 
into a Territory, and engaged in merchandising and general 
trading. 

During the troubles in the Territory between the John 
Brownists and their opponents, he lost his property by the 
theft of the John Brown and Lane gangs of marauders. 
This naturally soured him against the Abolitionists, whom 
he regarded with an aversion which, with him, knew no 
bounds. 

The immediate cause of his arrest (as well as it can be as- 
certained) was his invention of a bomb for disabling locomo- 
tives while in motion, without injury to the railroad trains. 
The object, it would seem, of Mr. Smith, in this invention, 
was to place it at the disposal of the Federal Government, 
as soon as he got it perfected, and proper models made for its 
experiment. He had a friend in St. Louis, to whom he com- 
municated his invention and design, requesting aid to enable 
him to get up a proper model, as the Ordnance Department, 
it appears, takes no notice of inventions whose utility cannot 
be practically demonstrated. 

242 



JOHN W. SMITH. 243 

The correspondence between Mr. Smith and his friend at 
St. Louis was seized, on suspicion of its having referred to 
some diabolical design against the Federal Government, and 
Smith himself was seized at Jacksonville, Illinois, early in 
August, 1862, and transported to the Old Capitol Prison. 

He was placed in the hospital, temporarily, with Dr. 
Hewitt and others, for whom there was no accommodation 
elsewhere, and in due time became an occupant of room No. 
13, and subsequently of jSTo. 16. 

The conduct of the Administration toward this feeble, pen- 
niless, infirm old man, aroused the sympathies of his fellow- 
prisoners. When first introduced to them in ISTo. 13, he had 
neither coat nor hat, and no change of clothing of any kind, 
and it was some time before those who had the means to 
help him found an opportunity to do so. Being a Free- 
mason of high degree in the order, he contrived to make his 
situation known to his brethren in Washington, and through 
the kind oflices of Dr. Hull, who had access to the prison, 
the Masons supplied some of his wants. 

"When Mr. Smith was brought to the Old Capitol he was 
stripped nude, and his rags of clothes and person searched for 
evidences of whatever charge was made against him, or of 
the suspicions entertained of him. But nothing was found 
to implicate him, or convict him of any offence. l!Teverthe- 
less, he was kept nearly two months in the building, and was 
only released at last (as were several others at the same time) 
to make way for some other victims. 

Like all others, he was wantonly kidnapped and cruelly 
punished without cause, trial, or judgment. 

Papers of value to him were taken from his person when 
arrested, and on applying for them when he was released, 
they were withheld. He had an inventive mind, and was 
continually thinking of improvements in implements of hus- 
bandry and domestic economy ; and, during the war, of im- 
provements of arms, projectiles, etc. He had patented seve- 
ral improvements in beehives and farm implements, but, like 



244 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

most inventors, realized little or nothing from the fruits of 
his genius. 

The papers taken from him had reference to inventions, 
and when he was set at liberty they had been confiscated, 
doubtless, as was the property of many other victims. When 
this poor, miserable man was discharged, he was compelled to 
beg the means to feed himself, on his way home, the Govern- 
ment furnishing only transportation. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BRINDLE. 

p ENER AL WM. BRINDLE is a native of Muncy, Ly- 
VX coming County, Pennsylvania. He represented, with 
ability, his county in the Legislature, during the session of 
1850-51, and was one of the committee that drew up the 
Tariff report, which was presented to the House on the 3d of 
February, 1851. 

Early in the year 1856, he removed to the Territory of 
Kansas, and was commissioned by President Pierce, (with 
whom he had served in the Mexican war,) Indian Land 
Agent, with authority to sell United States lands in the Ter- 
ritory, and receive the proceeds arising from the sales. His 
commission reached him on the 13th of September of that 
year, the anniversary of the entrance of the American army 
into the city of Mexico. General Brindle continued to hold 
this position until the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presi- 
dency, when he resigned, but was not relieved by the appoint- 
ment of a successor until May, 1861. 

During the Kansas difficulties of 1856 and 1857, General 
Brindle took an active part in the politics of that State, and 
was mainly instrumental in ferreting out and defeating the 
now well-known "Candle Box" election frauds of Calhoun 
and McLean, and in proving the perjury of the latter. The 
General, although a Democrat, opposed both extremes of 
the " Kansas Question," and, as a friend of the people, he 
used his utmost endeavors to obtain for them a fair election. 

He was arrested about 1 o'clock p.m., on the 28th of July, 
1862, at his residence in Lecompton, Kansas, by a Govern- 
ment detective, named Carpenter, supported by a company 

of Wisconsin cavalry. 

246 



246 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

General Brinclle demanded to know by what authority hia 
premises were surrounded by armed men, and he deprived 
of liberty. The officer in command replied that it was by 
order of General Blunt. 

When asked to produce the order, the officer commanded 
the ten men in the room to draw their revolvers, which they 
did, covering the person of the General. On being informed 
that no resistance was contemplated, the soldiers lowered 
their weapons. 

The General then inquired upon what charge or charges 
he was arrested, and was informed that it was on account of 
his being a terror to the Union men, and having arms in his 
house. 

The absurdity of the first charge is manifested by the fact 
that there were seated in the room, at the time, several ex- 
treme Abolitionists of Lecompton and the vicinity, who had 
just dined at the General's table. 

Accompanied by his wife, he set out for Fort Leavenworth 
the same evening, guarded by the detachment of cavalry. 
The command halted in the city of Lawrence for the night, 
when, through the influence of an extreme anti-slavery man, 
but a personal friend, he was released on his parole to report 
the following morning at nine o'clock. 

Here the General and wife were hospitably entertained by 
Dr. C. E. Miner and family, of that city. The Doctor, who 
was present at the time of his arrest, and knowing its in- 
justice, and who was, moreover, a bold and defiant friend of 
constitutional liberty, and a sworn enemy to the despotism 
then reigning supreme in Kansas, went w^ith him to the head- 
quarters of Captain Stout, where, in the presence of the mili- 
tary authorities and detectives, he boldly denounced the 
arrest, and oftered to accompany the General to Fort Leaven- 
worth. 

The command pushed forward, and arrived at Leavenworth 
City about dark. The General obtained permission to ac- 
company his wife to the Planters' House, where he met some 
friends connected with the army, who, learning of his arrest, 



GENERAL WILLIAM BRINDLE. 247 

volunteered to go to the Fort and procure his release, which 
thej did the same evening. 

He was confined in one of the most filthy prisons it is pos- 
t^ble to conceive, and which he found to be full of old resi- 
dents of the Plains, who had been seized, dragged from their 
homes, and imprisoned for weeks, without any known cause, 
and denied all intercourse with outside persons. 

The sanitary condition of the prison was totally neglected, 
and the stench, arising from the accumulated filth on the 
floor, was sickening. Soon after entering it, he had an 
opportunity to see the food furnished the prisoners for sup- 
per, which was as loathsome and disgusting as it was un- 
wholesome, and was totally unfit to be eaten by a human 
being. 

This, together with other uncalled-for inhumanities which 
were practised on those noble pioneers of civilization, who 
were charged with no oftence, and whose fealty to the Gov- 
ernment was above reproach, was an act of cruelty and in- 
justice which will be remembered by the citizens of the 
"West, long after its perpetrators shall have sunk into the 
tomb of the Capulets. 

As soon as the friends alluded to could go to the Fort and 
obtain an order for the General's release, he was discharged, 
but ordered to report at 9 o'clock a.m., on the 30th of July. 

He reported at the Provost Marshal's oflice at the ap- 
pointed time, and was informed by that ofiicial, that there 
were no charges against him, but that he must enter into 
bond, with security, not to leave the State without the per- 
mission of the Military Commission, and to appear before it 
when notified to answer to any charges that would be made 
against him. 

On the 18th of August, he demanded an honorable release 
from his bond, which was sent to him with the following 
indorsement : 

"Prisoner honorably discharged, August 26, 1862, and bond 
cancelled. (Signed) E. A. Calkins, 

Major 3d Wisconsin Cavalry, and Provost Marshal." 



248 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

On the morning after his release, he made known to the 
residents of the city of Leavenworth, that a large number 
of persons were held in durance by the military authorities, 
who did not know why they had been arrested, as no charges 
had been filed against them. He succeeded, with consider- 
able difficulty, in obtaining their release on the last day of 

July- 
General Brindle returned to his native State in October, 
1862, where he has since resided. 



JOHN T. GILMER, M.D. 

DR. JOHN T. GILMER, of Adams County, State of Illi- 
nois, was born in Wilkes County, Georgia, in the year 
1808. He was a son of Dr. Jolin T. Gilmer, a Virginian by 
birth and education, who removed from Virginia to Georgia, 
and from Georgia to Kentucky, in the year 1813, and from 
Kentucky to Illinois in 1833. 

The subject of this sketch had in early boyhood embraced 
the Christian religion, and, throughout his life and in the 
hour of death, he was cheered and sustained by its influence. 

He was courteous, kind, generous, and hospitable. These 
virtues drew around him the poor, who sought his beneficence, 
the helpless, to whom he extended a generous aid, and the 
persecuted, who found shelter beneath his roof. 

A hungry man never left the house of Dr. Gilmer, nor did 
a shivering stranger ever approach it without receiving an 
invitation to warm at his fires, and share the comforts of 
his home. 

When the reign of cruelty, torture, and terror was supreme 
in Missouri, hundreds of its best citizens were driven out of 
their houses to .witness the destruction of their property, 
insult to their families, and to make their escape at midnight, 
by the dazzling light of their burning dwellings. Others, 
seeing their parents or children shot down, fled, to escape 
with their lives, and in distant places sought shelter, until 
the murderous storm was over. 

"Wherever they hoisted their standards black, 
Before them was murder, behind them was wreck." 

Men were shot clown in the fields^ and their remains were fed 
to the swine. Nameless cruelties were perpetrated, until many 

. 249 



250 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

of the people of Missouri were strangers and pilgrims, scat- 
tered over the Mississippi Valley. 

The wide extent of Dr. Gilmer's acquaintance, as a mem- 
ber of the Christian Church and as a pliysician, attracted 
many of the most respectable of these refugees to his house, 
w^here he entertained them with a liberality, which will be 
kindly remembered after his persecutors are dead and for- 
gotten. This kindness was considered an offence against 
" loyalty," and occasioned his arrest. 

In the summer of 1863, the Doctor was seized at his home 
and dragged to Quincy, by a regiment of mercenaries, 
mainly Austrians, who had been engaged with Haynau in 
his butcheries in Hungary, and who had committed several 
murders in the Quincy military district. From Quincy he 
was taken to Springfield, Illinois, by these brutes, (who had 
insulted his family at the time of his arrest,) cast into a miser- 
able, filthy prison, and there detained until the indignation 
of the people, at the grossness of these outrages, became so 
wide-spread, that the authorities were compelled to release 
him. 

He had committed no offence, unless it be an offence to 
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick. 

This imprisonment wounded his proud and sensitive spirit 
to such an extent, that he never afterward enjoyed good 
health. He had a stroke of apoplexy, induced by his im- 
prisonment, from which he partially recovered, but finally 
yielded to its power. 

He died as he lived, the friend of liberty, and the servant 
of God. 



JOHN II. COOK. 

THE case of Mr. John H. Cook, although not a grievous 
one in comparison with others, because he was not sub- 
jected to the personal indignities which many others suf- 
fered, is an interesting one from the fact that it shows tlie 
malice, the lawlessness, and the vindictivenoss with which 
he was persecuted. 

Mr. Cook was born in the village of Seaford, Sussex 
County, Delaware, on the 22d day of July, 1817. He has 
been for thirty-three years a resident of the city of Pliiladel- 
phia, and has alwaj^s borne an unexceptionable character. 

He was arrested on the 22d of September, 1862, on an 
order issued by the Secretary of AVar, Edwin M. Stanton, 
and directed to Benjamin Franklin, Chief of the Detective 
Police Force of the City of Philadelphia. The names of 
those who are supposed to have made the affidavit on which 
the warrant for Mr. Cook's arrest was issued, are George 
AVood, William Lowry, and Thomas Naylor. The order 
was placed in the hands of John Lemon and W. Barthol- 
omew, who made the arrest. Mr. Cook knew not then, nor 
has he yet been informed of the cause of his arrest, but sup- 
poses it was because he had the moral courage to openly 
proclaim himself a Democrat. 

At the time of his arrest, he was engaged at his daily 
business, he being the receiving teller in the Kensington 
National Bank, which position he has held with credit for ' 
fifteen years. He was taken from the bank to the Mayor's 
office, and incarcerated in the room of the detectives. 
Mr. Cook having, on his way thither, incidentally met with 
I. Newton Brown, Esq., a member of the Philadelphia bar, 
in an undertone stated his case, and requested Mr. Brown to 

251 



252 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

apply for a writ of habeas corpus^ whicli he did immediately, 
while the prisoner was still in confinement. Mr. Lemon, one 
of the detectives who had made the arrest, called him out 
after an hour or so, and was about to take him away, to 
lock him up in a cell until the train left in the evening for 
the city of Washington. Mr. Cook asked where he was 
going, and the reply was as above stated. He solicited the 
favor of another half-hour, knowing that before its expira- 
tion Mr. Brown would return with the writ. The request 
was granted, and he was returned to the oiRce, and shortly 
afterward ordered before the court. 

The writ was granted, and the oflEicers haying him in 
custody not being able to name any charge against him, the 
United States District Judge, Cadwalader, proposed hold- 
ing him in his own recognizance, but the detectives claimed 
him as a prisoner of the Glovernment. Cook, feeling secure 
for the time being, said he was perfectl}^ willing they should 
hold him as a prisoner of the Government. They then 
imprisoned him in a station-house during the night, " a 
lock-up " for thieves, burglars, and pickpockets. The next 
day he was brought before the United States Court, George 
A. Cofi:ey, Esq., acting as counsel for the Government ; but 
he not having received any instructions from the Depart- 
ment at Washington, requested the case might be continued 
until the following day. This was granted, and Mr. Cook 
was held in three thousand dollars bail for his appearance. 

On the succeeding day, Mr. Cook made his appearance in 
court with his counsel, Messrs. George M. AYharton, Charles 
Ingersoll, and John A. Marshall, who had been retained for 
the prisoner, in addition to Mr. Brown. On his second 
appearance, the Judge Advocate, Mr. John C. Knox, sur- 
prised the Court, and the anxious spectators, by the announce- 
ment that the Government had ordered the prisoner's dis- 
charge. 

Thus ended this unjust attempt to injure and disgrace a 
most worthy citizen of Philadelphia, whose son at that time, 
was in the army, fighting for and protecting these miscreants 
at home. 



HOI^. GEORGE WILLIAM BROWK 

HOK GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN", a distinguislied 
lawyer of Baltimore, was elected Mayor of that city, 
in the autumn of 1860. For a number of years previously, 
the city had been entirely under the control of the Know- 
ITothing party. 

After that party came into power, it so mismanaged public 
affairs that it fell largely into the minority ; but, having the 
appointment of all the officers, including the judges of elec- 
tion and police force, it succeeded in carrying every election 
by a system of organized fraud and violence at the polls, 
which, up to that time, was without a parallel in the history 
of the country. 

This state of things led to the formation of the Reform* 
party. After a strenuous and determined, but ineffectual 
resistance at the polls, the leaders of the Reform movement 
applied for and obtained from the Legislature of the State, a 
system of laws, very carefully prepared by them, which pro- 
vided for the creation of a Board of Commissioners by the 
State, with power to appoint and control the police, and also 
appoint the judges of elections. 

Under the operation of these laws, there was held, in the 
autumn of 1860, the hrst fair and peaceable election which 
had taken place in the city of Baltimore for many years, and 
Mr. Brown, as the nominee of the Reform party, (of which, 
from the beginning, he had been a prominent member,) was 
chosen Chief Magistrate of the city by a very large majority. 

One of the cardinal principles of the party was to keep 
the affairs of the city carefully separated from national poli- 
tics, and this principle Mr. Brown steadfastly adhered to 
throughout his administration, notwithstanding the difficul- 
ties interposed by the breaking out of the war. 

253 



254 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

Mr. Brown's opinions on national affairs were, "however, very 
decided, and were freely expressed. He was opposed to slavery, 
aud earnestly desired to see it abolished by constitutional and 
legal means, but by those only. He did not think that a 
State had a constitutional right to secede from the Union, 
but he believed that the constitutional rights of the Southern 
States had been persistently violated by the Northern States, 
on a point which the former had always regarded as funda- 
mental — the rendition of fugitive slaves ; and that not only 
was the General Government both unable and unwilling to 
afford redress, but that the advent of the Republican party 
to power on the basis of the Chicago platform, and with its 
avowed hostility to slavery, clearly boded additional aggres- 
sions on the rights of the slaveholding States. 

On these grounds, while he deprecated secession as an un- 
wise step, he thought that the ]!s'orth should either guarantee 
to the South its constitutional rights, or let it depart in peace, 
and he was therefore opposed to the war, which he believed 
to be waged for the purpose of subjugation. 

Maryland being a Border State, it was natural that the 
sympathies of her people should be divided, but it is un- 
doubtedly true that the feelings of the large majority, both 
in the State and in the city of Baltimore, were strongly en- 
listed on the side of the South. When, therefore, the Presi- 
dent, by his proclamation issued in April, 1861, called out a 
volunteer force of seventy-live thousand men, who were to 
assemble in "Washington, a violent feeling of indignation w^as 
aroused. It was regarded as an attempt to overrun and sub- 
jugate the South. 

1'he first detaeliment of troops came from Pennsylvania, 
and were without arms. They were escorted through the 
city by the police, w^ho protected them from violence from 
the angry crowd who followed them. 

The next day, the memorable 19th of April, a body of 
troops fully armed and equipped, arrived from Massachusetts. 
The police authorities had previously, but in vain, endea- 
vored to ascertain the precise time of their arrival, in order 



GEOEGE WILLIAM BROWN. 255 

that proper arrangements might be made for their reception, 
and had kept the whole police force for many hours in readi- 
ness, so that they were almost worn out from fatigue. But 
the authorities of the United States kept back all informa- 
tion, until about an hour before the troops actually arrived, 
and then gave instructions which proved to be most injudi- 
cious. 

The police authorities were directed to receive the troops 
at the Camden or Washington Station, although they were 
to arrive at the other end of the city, at the Philadelphia 
Station. They were not to march through the city, but were 
to be carried through on the cars. The first cars came safely 
through to the Camden Station, where the police were drawn 
up in force, but the last were not so fortunate. A mob tore 
up the rails near the Philadelphia Station, and a force, con- 
sisting of several companies, was compelled to leave the cars 
and march. 

The mob was unarmed, except a few pistols, and attacked 
the soldiers with stones and such missiles as they could lay 
hands on. The Mayor had left the Camden Station, suppos- 
ing that all the troops had safely arrived there, and that the 
danger was over, and was w^alking to his office in the direc- 
tion of the advancing companies, when information was 
brought to him of the attack. He immediately hastened to 
the spot, and sent an order to the Marshal to follow with a 
body of the police. He met the troops rapidly marching, 
the crowd following. He placed himself at the head of the 
troops and marched with them, but his presence did not avail 
either to protect them from attack or the citizens from their 
indiscriminate fire. 

Men were killed and wounded on both sides. Soon, how- 
ever, the Marshal of Police, at the head of about fifty men, 
rushed forward from the direction of the Camden Station, 
passed to the rear of the troops, threw themselves across the 
street, and, with pistols presented, kept back the advancing 
mob. 

The soldiers, thus protected, marched to Camden Station, 



256 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

were placed in the cars, and sent forward to "Washington, 
and but for this timely succor would have suifered severely. 
The effect of the collision on the people was instantaneous 
and prodigious. Citizens not engaged in the strife had been 
killed. Scenes of future bloodshed were apprehended ; the 
passions of the young and excitable were fearfully aroused, 
and the most sober-minded, and even those of the strongest 
Union sentiments, for a time shared in the excitement. 

The people appeared to have come to the unanimous de- 
termination that no more troops should pass through the 
city. But other troops were known to be on the way, and 
might arrive at any moment, and their arrival would have 
been the signal for the renewal of the strife. 

The authorities of the city telegraphed to "Washington, 
but received no reply. In this dilemma, the Mayor and 
Police Commissioners, with the approbation of Governor 
Hicks, who was then in Baltimore, caused certain bridges on 
the Northern Central Railway, and the Philadeli^hia, "Wil- 
mington and Baltimore Railroad, to be disabled; and this 
was done just in time to prevent a body of unarmed troops, 
from Pennsylvania, entering the city. 

On Sunday morning, April 21, at about 3 o'clock, Mr. 
Brown received a telegram from President Lincoln, request- 
ing him and Governor Hicks to go to "Washington, and stat- 
ing that a special train would be provided for the purpose. 
Governor Hicks had gone to Annapolis, but Mr. Brown, ac- 
companied by several friends, proceeded at once to "Washing- 
ton, and had a long interview and frank explanation and in- 
terchange of opinions with the President and Cabinet, and 
also with the Commander-in-chief, General Scott, who was 
present at the meeting. 

The substance of the interview was published at the time 
in the folloAving card, which appeared in the papers : 

"Baltimore, April 21, 7| o'clock p.m. 
" Mayor Brown received a telegram from the President of the 
United States, at 3 o'clock this morning, directed to himself and 



GEOKGE WILLIAM BROWN. 257 

Governor Hicks, requesting them to go to Washington by spe- 
cial train, in order to consult with Mr. Ijincoln for the preserva- 
tion of the peace of Marj^land. The Mayor replied that Gov- 
ernor Hicks was not in the city, and inquired if he should go 
alone. 

"Receiving an answer hy telegraph in the affirmative, his 
Honor, accompanied by George W. Dobbin, John C. Brune, and 
S. T. Wallis, Esqs., whom he had summoned to attend him, pro- 
ceeded at once to the station. 

"After a series of dela3's, they were enabled to procure a spe- 
cial train, about half-past seven o'clock, in which they arrived in 
"Washington about 10. They proceeded at once to the Presi- 
dent's House, where they were admitted to an immediate inter- 
view, to which the Cabinet and General Scott were summoned. 
A long conversation and discussion ensued. The President, upo7i 
his part, recognized the good foith of the city and State authori- 
ties, and insisted upo\. his own. 

"He admitted the excited state of feeling in Baltimore, and 
his desire and duty to avoid the fatal consequences of a collision 
with the people. He urged, on the other hand, the absolute, 
irresistible necessity of having a transit through the State for such 
troops as might be necessary for the protection of the Federal 
Capital. 

"The protection of Washington, he asseverated with great 
earnestness, was the sole object of concentrating troops there, 
and he protested that none of the troops brought through Mary- 
land were intended for any purpose hostile to the State, or aggres- 
sive as against the Southern States. Being now unable to bring 
them up the Potomac in security, the Government must either 
bring them through Maryland, or abandon the Capital. 

" He called on General Scott for his opinion, which the General 
gave at length, to the effect that troops might be brought through 
Maryland without going through Baltimore, by either carrying 
them from Perr^-sville to Annapolis, and thence b}' rail to Wash- 
ington, or by bringing them to the Eehi}- House, on the Northern 
Central Eailroad, and marching them to the Belay Plouse, on 
thi Washington Bailroad, and thencg by rail to the Capital. 

"If the people would permit them to go by either of the^e 
routes uninterruptedly, the necessity of their passing through 
17 



258 A M E E I C A X B A S T I L E. 

Baltimore "would be avoided. If the people would not permit 
them a transit thus remote from the city, they must select their 
own best route, and if need be, fight their way through Balti- 
more, a result which the General earnestly deprecated. 

"The President expressed his hearty concurrence, and said 
that no ti'oops should be ordered through Baltimore if they were 
permitted to go uninterrupted by either of the other routes sug- 
gested. In this disposition the Secretary of War expressed his 
participation. Mayor Brown assured the President, that the city 
authorities would use all laAvful means to prevent their citizens 
from leaving Baltimore to attack the troops in j^assing at a dis- 
tance; but he urged, at the same time, the impossibility of their 
being able to promise anything more than their best efforts in 
that direction. 

" The excitement was great, he told the President; the people 
of all classes were fully aroused, and it was impossible for any 
one to answer for the consequences of the presence of Northern 
troops anywhere within our borders. He reminded the Presi- 
dent, also, that the jurisdiction of the city authorities was con- 
fined to their own population, and that he could give no promises 
for the people elsewhere, because he would be unable to keep 
them if given. 

"The President frankly acknowledged this difficult}', and said 
that the Government would only ask the city authorities to use 
their best efforts with respect to those under their jurisdiction. 

"The interview terminated with the distinct assurance, on the 
part of the President, that no more troops should be sent through 
Baltimore, unless obstructed in their transit in other directions, 
and with the understanding that the city authorities should do 
their best to restrain their own people. 

"The Mayor and his companions availed themselves of the 
President's full discussion of the questions of the daj^, to urge 
upon him, respectfully, but in the most earnest manner, a course 
of policy which would give peace to the country, and especially 
the withdrawal of all orders contemplating the passage of troops 
through any part of Maryland. 

" On retui'ning to the cars, and just about to leave, at 2 p.m., 
the Mayor received a despatch from Mr. Garrett, announcing the 
approach of troops to Cockeysville, and the excitement conse- 
quent upon it in the city. 



GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN. 259 

" Mr. Brown and his companions returned at once to the Pre- 
sident, and asked an immediate interview, which was promptly 
given. The Mayor exhibited Mi*. Garrett's despatch, which gave 
the President great surprise. 

" He immediately summoned the Secretary of War and General 
Scott, who soon appeared, with other members of the Cabinet. 

" The despatch was submitted. The President, at once, in the 
most decided way, urged the recall of the troops, saying that he 
had no idea they would be there to-day ; and lest there should 
be the slightest suspicion of bad faith on his part, in summoning 
the Mayor to Washington, and allowing troops to march on the 
city during his absence, he desired that the troops should, if it 
were practicable, be sent back, at once, to York or Harrisburg. 

" General Scott adopted the President's views warmly, and an 
order was accordingly prepared by the Lieutenant-General to 
that effect, and forwarded by Major Belger, of the Armj'', who 
accompanied the Mayor to this city, 

" The troops at Cockeysville, the Mayor was assured, were not 
brought there for transit through the citj", but were intended to 
be marched to the Relay House, on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road. They will proceed to Harrisburg, from there to Phila- 
delphia, and thence by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, or 
by Perrj'sville, as Major-General Patterson may direct. 

" This statement is made by the authority of the Mayor, and 
Messrs. Geo. W. Dobbin, John C. Brune, and S. T. Wallis, who 
accompanied Mr. Brown, and who concurred with him, in all 
particulars, in the course adopted by him in the two interviews 
with Mr. Lincoln. 

(Signed) George Wm. Brown, Mayor." 

On the 27th day of June, 1861, the Marshal of Police was 
arrested by a military force, under orders from Washington, 
and placed in confinement. Soon afterward, by the same 
authority, the police force of the city was dismissed, and 
another police was established under military rule. Shortly 
afterward, and by the same authority, the Police Commis- 
sioners were arrested and placed in confinement. 

The Mayor was, however, for some months longer left in 
the discharge of the functions of his office, except those per- 
taining to him as one of the Board of Police Conniiissioners, 



260 AMEEICAN BASTILE 

and he studiously endeavored to discharge his duties m such 
a manner as not in any way to come in conflict with the Gov- 
ernment of the United States. 

The following correspondence between himself and Gen- 
eral Dix, then the General in command in the city, will serve 
to show the spirit in which he acted, and the difficult posi- 
tion in which he was placed : 

" Headquarters Department op Pennsylvania, 
Baltimore, Md., 3d September, 1861. 
" To Hon. Geo. Wm. Brown, Mayor of the City of Baltimore: 

" Si?' : Reasons of state, which I deem imperative, demand that 
the payment of compensation to the members of the old City 
Police, who were, by a resolution of the Board of Police Com- 
missioners, dated the 27th of June last, declared 'off duty,' and 
whose places were filled in pursuance of an order of Major- 
General Banks of the same date, should cease, I therefore direct, 
by virtue of the authority vested in me as commanding officer 
of the military forces of the United States in Baltimore and its 
vicinity, that no further payment be made to them. 

"Independently of all other considerations, the continued 
compensation of a body of men who have been suspended in 
their functions by the order of the Government, is calculated to 
bring its authority into disrespect; and the extraction from the 
citizens of Baltimore by taxation, in a time of general depression 
and embarrassment, of a sum amounting to several hundred 
thousand dollars a year, for the payment of nominal officials, 
who render it no service, cannot fail, by creating wide-spread 
dissatisfaction, to disturb the quietude of the city, which I am 
most anxious to preserve, 

" I feel assured that the jDaynient would have been voluntarily 
discontinued by yourself, as a violation of the principle on which 
all compensation is bestowed — as a remuneration for an equiva- 
lent service actually performed — had you not considered your- 
self bound by existing laws to make it. 

" This order will relieve you from the embai*rassmeut, and I do 
not doubt that it will be complied with. 

" I am, very respectfullj', your obedient servant, 

(Signed) John A. Dix, 

Major-General Commanding." 



GEOKGE WILLIAM BEOWN. 261 

"Mayor's Office, 
City Hall, Baltimore, September 5, 1861. 

"Major-General John A. Dix, Baltimore, Md. : 

" Sir: I Avas not in town yesterday, and did not receive until 
this morning, your letter of the 3d inst., ordering that no further 
payment be made to the members of the City Police. 

" The payments have been made heretofore in pursuance of 
the laws of the State, under the advice of the City Counsellor, 
by the Register, the Comptroller, and myself. 

"Without entering into a discussion of the considerations of 
which 3'ou have deemed sufficient to justify this proceeding, I 
feel it to be my duty to enter m}^ protest against this interfer- 
ence, by military authority, with the exercise of powers lawfully 
committed b}^ the State of Marj-land to the officers of the city 
corporation; but, it is nevertheless not the intention of the city 
authorities to offer resistance to the order which you have issued, 
and I shall therefore give public notice to the officers and men 
of the City Police, that no further payments may be expected 
by them. 

" There is an arrearage of pay of two weeks due to the force, 
and the men have by the law and rules of the Board been pre- 
vented from engaging in any other business or occupation. 
Most of them have families, who are entirely dependent for sup- 
port on the pay received. 

"I do not understand your order as meaning to prohibit the 
paj^ment of this arrearage, and shall therefore proceed to make 
it, unless prevented by your further order. 

" I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) Geo. Wm. Brown, 

Maj'or of Baltimore." 

" IIeadquarters Department of Pennsylvania, 
Baltimore, Md., September 9, 1861. 

"Hon. Geo. AYm. Brown, Mayor of the City of Baltimore: 

" Sir : Your letter of the 5th inst. was duly received. I can- 
not, without acquiescing in the violation of a principle, assent to 
the payment of an arrearage to the members of the old City 
Police, as suggested in the closing paragraph of your letter. 



262 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

"It was the intention of my letter to prohibit any payment to 
them subsequently to the day on which it was written. 

"You will please, therefore, to consider this as the 'further 
order' referred to by you. 

"I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) John A. Dix, 

Major-General Commanding." 

" Mayor's Office, 
"City Hall, Baltimore, September 11, 1861. 
"Major-General John A. Dix, Baltimore: 

" Sir : I did not come to town yesterday until the afternoon, 
and then ascertained that my letters had been sent out to my 
country residence, whei"e, on my return last evening, I found 
yours of the 9th, in reply to mine of the 5th inst., awaiting me. 
It had been left at the Mayor's office yesterday morning. 

"Before leaving the Mayor's office, about 3 o'clock p.m., on the 
9th inst., and not having received any reply from you, I had 
signed a check for the payment of arrears due the Police, and the 
money was on the same day drawn out of the bank and handed 
over to the proper officers, and nearly the entire amount was by 
them paid to the Police force before the receipt of your letter. 

"The suggestion in your letter as to the 'violation of a princi- 
ple,' requires me to add that I recognize in the action of the 
Government of the United States, in the matter in question, 
nothing but the assertion of superior force. 

" Out of regard to the great interests committed to my charge 
as Chief Magistrate of the cit}^, I have yielded to that force, and 
do not feel it necessary to enter into any discussion of the prin- 
ciples upon which the Government sees fit to exercise it. 

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) Geo. Wm. Brown, Mayor." 

The last letter of this correspondence is dated the 11th of 
September ; and about one o'clock on the morning of the 13th, 
Mr. Brown was arrested at his country residence, by a de- 
tachment of police and a file of soldiers, and taken as a pris- 
oner to Fort McHenry. He was thence removed to Fortress 
Monroe, thence to Fort Lafayette, and finally to Fort 
Warren. 



GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN. 263 

The arresting officer professed to act by authority of the 
United States, but exhibited no warrant, and said he had none. 

The reason of the arrest has never been assigned, but it 
was undoubtedly because the Government of the United 
States was determined that the control of the city of Balti- 
more should pass into the hands of those who were devoted 
to the war-policy of the National Government. 

Soon afterward, the City Council were, by General Wool, 
then in command in Baltimore, compelled to resign, and a 
new City Council was chosen, b}^ an election held in such a 
way as to secure the result designed by the Government. 

Various oifers were made to Mr. Brown, on the part of the 
Government, to release him from imprisonment, provided he 
would take an oath of allegiance and resign his office, or give 
his parole not to return to Baltimore, but he refused to accept 
any such conditions. 

The following correspondence, which occurred while he was 
in Boston, on parole, for the purpose of attending to some 
private business, shows the position which he maintained : 

" Boston, January 4, 1862. 
" Marshal Keys, Boston : 

" Sir : I called twice to see you during this week, and in your 
absence had an understanding with your deputy that I was to 
surrender mj'self to you this morning, on the expiration of my 
parole, in time to be conveyed to Fort Warren, and I have ac- 
cordingly done so. 

"As yon have not received any instructions from Washington 
in regard to the course to be pursued with me, I shall consider 
myself in your custody until j-ou have had ample time to write 
to Washington, and obtain a reply. 

"I desire it, however, to be expressly understood, that no 
further extension of my parole is asked for, or would be accepted 
at this time. 

"It is my right and my wish to return to Baltimore, to re 
sume the performance of my official and private duties. 

Eespectfully, 
(Signed) Geo. Wm. Brown." 



264 AMERICAN BASTILE. 



" Department of State, 
Washington, Januaiy 6, 1862. 
"John S. Keys, Esq., IT. S. Marshal, Boston: 

" Sir : Your letter of the 4th instant, relative to George W. 
Erown, has been received. 

" In repl}', I have to inform you that, if he desires it, you may 
extend his parole to the period of thirty daj's. If not, you will 
please recommit him to Fort AYarren, and report to this Depart- 
ment. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) F. VY. Seavard, 

Acting Secretary of State." 

"Boston, January 10, 1862. 
" Marshal Keys, Boston : 

"S<r.- In my note to you of the 4th instant, T stated that I 
did not desire a renewal of my parole, but that it was my right 
and wish to return to Baltimore, to resume the performance of 
my private and oflScial duties. 

"My note was, in substance, as you informed me, forwarded 
to Hon. ^Y. H. Seward, Secretary of State, in a letter from you 
to him. 

"In reply to your communication, F, W. Seward, Acting 
Secretary of State, wrote to you, under date of the 6th inst., 
that 'you may extend the parole of George AY. Brown, if he 
desires it, but if not, you are directed to recommit him to Fort 
Warren.' 

"It was hai'dly necessary to give me the option of an exten- 
sion of parole which I had previously declined, but th6 offer ren- 
ders it proper for me to say, that the parole was applied for by 
ray friends, to enable me to attend to important private busi- 
ness, affecting the interests of others as well as myself — that the 
necessities growing out of this particular matter of business no 
longer exist, and that I cannot, consistently with my ideas of 
propriety, by accepting a renewal of the parole, place myself in 
the position of seeming to acquiesce in a prolonged and illegal 
banishment from my home and duties. 

Kespectfully, 
(Signed) Geo. Wm. Brown." . 



GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN. 265 

On the lltli of January, Mr. Brown returned to Fort 
"Warren, and on the 14th an ofler was made to him by the 
Government, to renew and extend his parole to ninety days, 
upon condition that he would not pass south of the Hudson 
E-iver. This was also declined by him. 

On the 27th of N"ovember, 1862, after his term of office 
had expired, and another Maj^or had been elected, Mr. Erown 
was unconditionally released. 

For an account of his imprisonment, the reader is referred 
to the narrative of Frank Key Howard, Esq. 



A. B. HEWITT, M.D. 

DR. A. B. HEWITT, a practising physician of Chatham, 
Illinois, was one of the occupants of room No. 13 of the 
Old Capitol Prison, a name now familiar to Americans as 
occupying a place in history, corresponding to that of the 
Bastile in the capital of France, during the French Revo- 
lution, 

His lameness was so great that it excited the pity of his 
fellow-prisoners, and should have prevented his arrest, with- 
out the proof of the crime with which he was charged was 
unquestionable. ^Nevertheless, early in August, 1862, he was 
kidnapped at his home, in Illinois, and conveyed to Wash- 
ington City, where he was imprisoned until the month of 
November, and then released without a trial, and without a 
charge of any kind having been preferred against him. 

On his arrival at the prison, in consequence of the Bastile 
proper being filled from yard to attic, he was placed tempo- 
rarily in the hospital. On the 26th of August, he and the 
"Wandering Jew" were transferred to room No. 13, where 
they remained until the close of Sej^tember. No. 13 being 
needed about that time for the accommodation of some 
Federal officers accused of serious ofiences, the occupants 
were transferred to No. 16, which afterward became famous 
as the abode of nearly all the prisoners of state confined in 
the "Old Capitol." 

Dr. Hewitt whiled away the time of his captivity in 
making finger-rings out of peach-stones, until the supply 
was exhausted ; and then his mind, being unemployed, and 
allowed to dwell upon the wrongs and cruelties to which he 
was subjected, became affected almost to frenzy. 

The prisoners, with scarcely an exception, were haggard 

266 



A. B. H E W I T T, M. D. 267 

in appearance, and restless in their movements as caged wild 
beasts, and, in a word, exhibited in their persons pictures of 
such a cruel despotism as would have moved to madness, 
had they seen them, the American people, and incited them 
to emulate the illustrious example of the Parisians to tear 
open the Bastile and avenge the wrongs perpetrated upon its 
inmates. 

But care w^as taken that they should neither be seen nor 
heard ; and their correspondence being subjected to the 
strictest surveillance of the tyrants and their underlings, 
the people could learn nothing of the treatment measured 
out to them by the hand of despotic power. 



WILLIAM H. WIKDER. 

MR. WILLIAM H. WINDER, tlie subject of tins nar- 
rative, is descended from a Maryland family of that 
name, which settled some two hundred years ago, in Somer- 
set County, on the Eastern shore of that State. His father, 
the late General Wm. II. Winder, who died in 1824, removed 
about the year 1801 to Baltimore, at which place he was 
contemporary with Pinckney, Luther Martin, Robert Goodloe 
Harper, Roger B. Taney, and others, with whom he was on 
intimate terms of friendship. The General was in high 
standing in the society of both Washington and Baltimore, 
and wielded considerable influence as a Senator in the Legis- 
lature of his State. 

His son, Wm. H. Winder, was born in Baltimore, but 
anterior to 1832, removed to Philadelphia, where he resided 
at the date of his arrest. He was for some years in the 
mercantile business, but in 1839 became a contractor and 
builder, and as such erected the Government building, corner 
of F and 17th Streets, Washington. The National Theatre, 
fronting Pennsjdvania Avenue, near Willard's Hotel, but 
subsequently burned, was also erected by Mr. Winder. In 
the construction of the former of these buildings, he used 
iron girders to make fire-proof floors, being the first that 
had ever been used. 

Mr. Winder was a frequent contributor to the newspapers ; 
and there are few men who have furnished more matter 
gratuitously than this gentleman. Early in the late struggle 
between the North and South, he wrote a number of articles, 
to prove that the North must adhere to the Constitution, as 
the ark of its safety ; and at diflferent periods, furnished some 
elaborate articles to the press, and to private individuals, 

2ti8 



WILLIAM H. WINDEK. 269 

deprecating civil war, and deploring its consequences, avow- 
ino; his belief that the Union was founded on fraternal love 
and fellowship ; that it could never be cemented by blood, or 
upheld by the bayonet ; and that war would not only spill 
the best blood of the nation — burden it with thousands of 
millions of indebtedness — alienate the affections of the 
people, and arouse their worst passions — but would demoral- 
ize society to such an extent, that years of peace would not 
restore it to its former condition. 

We now proceed to lay before the public some of his cor- 
respondence, which, it is supposed, led to his arrest and in- 
carceration. We regret that our space prevents us from giv- 
ing the letters in full. On the 30th of August, lg61, Mr. 
Winder, from Philadelphia, addressed a letter to General 
Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War, indorsing an appli- 
cation for a second lieutenancy in the regular army for 
Henry Hay, of that city. Mr. Hay's former application, 
signed by Commodore Stewart and several other prominent 
citizens, had failed to obtain the appointment or elicit a 
reply ; hence the indorsement of Mr. Winder. In the . tter 
part of his letter, he expressed, at some length, his viewo on 
the political situation of aifairs, deploring the rashness of the 
men who were urging the two sections of the country on to 
a monstrous, wanton, and suicidal civil war, declaring his 
conviction that a Union was impracticable, unless founded in 
peace and fraternal fellowship, and closed his letter by ex- 
pressing to the General his high personal regard. General 
C, in his reply, regrets his inability to appoint Mr. Hay to 
the desired position, as the vacancies were all filled, and 
closed by saying: "We have never agreed very well in 
politics, but I have never doubted that you had at heart the 
best interests of your country." 

Emboldened by this frank declaration of General Cameron, 
and considering that his personal relations with Governor 
Seward had always been friendly, and presuming that a letter 
from him might be received in an equal spirit of candor, Mr. 
AVinder, on the 10th of September, 1861, addressed him the 



270 AMERICAN BASTILE. • 

letter which, he supposes, exercised a potent influence in 
keeping him in conlinement. This letter was hut a reitera- 
tion of the sentiments contained in the letter to General 
Cameron, expressed at more length, and citing more authori- 
ties to substantiate his position. But the gall of it consisted 
in an attack upon Abolitionism and its pernicious doctrines, 
and a sharp denunciation of the infamous " Helper Book," 
which, it will be remembered, had received the indorse- 
ment and encomiums of the Secretary. Immediately, as 
he supposes, on the perusal of this letter, and with all the 
imperiousness of manner and amiability of purpose of Rich- 
ard, he pronounced the doom, " Off with his head ! " in his 
laconic despatch to Marshal Millward, ordering his arrest. 

On the evening of the 10th of September, between seven and 
eight o'clock, he was arrested by Detective Franklin, -put in 
a station-house cell, and confined there all night. Franklin 
showed him a warrant, issued by the Mayor of Philadelphia, 
induced by a despatch from General Andrew Porter, Provost 
Marshal of Washington, directing it. When brought before 
Mayor Henry, in the morning, that gentleman told Mr. 
Winder, in the presence of Detective Franklin, that he had 
given express orders not to arrest him that day, unless he 
could do it before half-past two o'clock, in order that the pris- 
oner might have time to obtain bail. But Franklin chose, 
inirposcly, to disregard this peremptory order. He knew 
where to find Mr. W., who was at his office or hotel during 
the entire day, but his principal object was to prevent his 
presence during the ransacking of his ofiice, from which, 
besides papers relating to political matters, he took books 
and pictures ; also letters having no shadow of relation to 
politics, but referring to the sacred secrets of other parties ; 
and many additional things were taken wholly unjustifiably, 
even supposing the right of search to have existed. 

Arrested in the armory of the company to which he was 
attached, he was taken to his chamber, and there searched by 
Detective Franklin, and his papers, keys, etc., taken from 
him, except his office-key, which he held in his hand. Trunks, 



WILLIAM H. WIN DEE. 271 

closets, drawers, etc., were searclied; every scrap of paper 
taken, although none of them were of a political nature, as 
he saw by reading. After imprisoning him in the station- 
house, he proceeded to Mr. Winder's office, broke open the 
door or picked the lock, and made an examination of his 
papers there. On the following morning, his clerk found a 
piece of candle and other evidence of a nocturnal visit. He 
also found an officer there, Avho proceeded with the examina- 
tion of his papers. On leaving the office, Detective Franklin 
told this gentleman, that he had better not come to the office 
again, during the time he held possession of it. They held 
possession of the office for two weeks, during which time the 
work of pillage went on, ransacking safe, chests, drawers, 
cases, etc., and a collection of papers of some thirty years, 
violating the sanctity of private correspondence during all 
that time, under the pretence of hunting treasonable matter 
during the few months preceding. Access to his private 
papers was allowed to reporters of the press for the purpose 
of publication, and false, garbled, and malicious slanders 
were published as the alleged contents of such letters. At 
the end of two weeks, his clerk was permitted to take posses- 
sion of his office, they, as Mr. Winder supposes, holding ke3's 
for access at pleasure. They carried olf letter-books, letters 
to him, copies of his letters, a scrap-book containing extracts 
from newspaper articles that he had written for the press. 
They stole copies of his letters to Cameron and Seward, and 
General Cameron's letter to him. They purloined his Army 
Dictionary and ISTavy Register, his genealogical tree, pictures, 
and autograph letters. From such a large collection of 
papers as he had, it was impossible to determine with cer- 
tainty the full amount of the robbery. 

On the morning of the 11th of September, he was taken to 
the Mayor's office, when the Mayor told him, that on sign- 
ing a bond for two hundred dollars in his own recognizance 
to appear in October, he would discharge him. Mr. Winder 
signed the bond, supposing there was an end of the matter, 
when to his surprise, the Mayor said to him that, in compli- 



272 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ance Avitli the request of the United States District Attorney, 
he would hand him over into the custody of the United 
States Marshal, whose deputy was there to take him in charge. 
That othcial immediately stepped up and took him in charge, 
remarking as he did so, that he was to have a hearing before 
the Commissioner that afternoon, at four o'clock. In the 
mean time he was confined in Moyamensing Prison. 

At four o'clock, he appeared at the Commissioner's office 
with his counsel, George W. Biddle, Esq., for whom he had sent. 
At the opening, the District Attorney Coffey stated that he 
had been unable to procure the expected evidence, but that 
reports of Mr. Winder's conversation had reached his ears, 
and he wished the hearing postponed until the 13th inst., at 
4 o'clock p. M., to give him time to hunt up evidence. Not- 
withstanding this confession of the destitution of evidence 
to justify his arrest, and that flimsy pretext of hoping to 
hunt up reports of conversations, the Commissioner, instead 
of discharging the prisoner, granted the delay, and recom- 
mitted him to Moyamensing. 

On the afternoon of the 13th, at the hour appointed, Mr. 
Winder and his counsel were at the office of the Commis- 
sioner. District Attorney Coffey kept them waiting an hour 
l>efore lie made his appearance. This delay was doubtless 
designed to allow him no time to take out a writ of habeas 
corpus before he could be hurried off' to Xew York, as had 
been determined on. On coming in, Mr. Coffey stated to the 
Commissioner, that the paper which he held in his hand would 
render further action before him unnecessary, and desired his 
discharge by the Commissioner, in order, that the directions 
in the paper might be carried into effect. This paper ]}ur- 
jmrted to be a despatch from Simon Cameron, Secretary of 
War, worded as follows: 

"Washington, September 11, 1861. 
"George A. Coffey, U. S. District Attorne}^: 

'• Have telegraphed Marshal Millward to arrest Wni. H. AYinder, 
and transfer him to Fort Lafayette. 

(Signed) Simon Cameron, 

Secretary of War." 



WILLIAM H. WINDER. 273 

Instantly on his discharge by the Commissioner, the Mar- 
shal took him into custody, telling him that he must go to 
JSTew York. Mr. Winder was immediately placed in a car- 
riao;e in waitins;, and driven to his rooms for his clothinfi;, 
trunks, etc., then conveyed to Market Street wharf, where 
they crossed the river, walked down to the Camden and Am- 
boy depot, and took seats in the train for 'New York. While 
in the carriage, the Marshal, in order, as he said, to show his 
consideration for him, pulled from his pocket the following 
despatch : 

"Washington, September 11, 18<31. 

" Send Wm. II. Winder to Fort Lafayette. 

(Signed) Wm. H. Seward." 

The Marshal said that this despatch had been in his pos- 
session several days, then the 13th inst., but had not been 
used. . Mr. Seward was probably unaware of his victim's ar- 
rest, the night previous, when he dictated his first despatch ; 
but on the 12th, wdien he learned of it, he again telegraphed 
to the Marshal : 1 

" Send Wm. II. Winder to Fort Lafayette, New York, and 
deliver him into the custod}^ of Colonel Martin Burke. Seyid the 
papers and evidence here. lie is reported to have been arrested by 
Detective Franklin. W. H. Sewaru, 

Secretary of State." 

At the cars. Marshal Millward confided him to the charge 
of two deputies, who accompanied him to New York, Avhere 
they engaged a hack and drove him to Fort Hamilton, and 
with him they delivered to Colonel Burke the letter con- 
signing him to a military Bastile. The Colonel immediately 
sent him under guard to Fort Lafayette. The abominable 
treatment of the prisoners at this place, is fully detailed 
elsewhere. 

Mr. Winder remained incarcerated in Fort Lafayette until 
the 29th of October, w^hen he, together with a number of 
others, was placed on board the steamer " State of Maine,' 

18 



274 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

for Foit Warren, Boston Harbor. On the 1st of November, 
1861, be entered the Fort, wbere no preparation bad been 
made for the reception of sucb a number of prisoners as the 
steamer contained. The rooms had not even a chair or bench, 
and for eight days they had nothing but the bare floor to lie 
upon, over which they spread their overcoats, having neither 
bed nor blanket. Some few perfectly raw hams were cut up on 
a barrel-head, in the open air, and distributed, and thus some of 
the prisoners obtained something to eat. The Commandant, 
Dimick, manifested throughout a disposition to grant every 
indulgence consistent with his instructions, and his whole 
course was in marked and favorable contrast with that of 
the fellows at Fort Lafayette. 

On the 5th of December, 1861, Mr. Winder addressed a 
letter to Secretary Seward, but which elicited no response 
from that official. In this letter he stated his long imprison- 
ment of thirteen weeks, his inability to find the charges 
against him, and his unconsciousness of any wrong done by 
him, or any disloyal act toward the Government, requesting 
a parole, that he might go to Washington to have his case 
investigated. This application was made in pursuance of a 
letter from Secretary Seward, which was read to the prison- 
ers of the Fort, making a request to them to send a state- 
ment of their cases to him. 

On the 14th of January, 1862, he was offered his release on 
condition of " taking the oath of allegiance." This he em- 
phatically declined to do, giving the same reasons for his re- 
fusal as the other prisoners. Senator Pearce, of Maryland, 
to whom, among others, he had written to learn of what his 
imputed offence consisted, replied, January 21f, 1862, saying 
" your frequent correspondence and bold conversations have 
made 3'ou obnoxious. I fear there is no influence, certainly I 
have none, to avail for your purpose." Again, on the 2d of 
February, he said, " With Mr. Seward I can do nothing. I 
saw 1dm yesterday, and he is as rigid as cast iron." On the 
16th of February he was again oftered his release, if he would 
take what was denominated " a modified oath ;" and on the 



WILLIAM H. WINDEE. 275 

22d of the same month, the " Amnesty^^ and " Parole" were 
tendered him as a condition of release. These he also refused, 
stating his reasons at some length in a letter to the Secretary 
of War. 

On the 15th of March, Mr. "Winder opened a correspond- 
ence with General Cameron, to ascertain the charges against 
him, and what had induced him to consign him to Fort La- 
fayette. This letter produced the followmg reply : 

"LoCHiEL, 24th March, 1862. 
"Wm. H. Winder, Esq.: 

" Sir : You surprise me by saying, in your letter of the 15th 
inst., received to-day, that it was by my order that you were 
tuken from Philadelphia to Fort Lafayette and placed in con- 
finement, etc. I knew nothing of your arrest until I saw the 
fact stated in the newspapers; and being at the time closely en- 
gaged in the discharge of my official duties, neglected to inquire 
into the cause; presuming, however, that it was done by order 
of the State Department, which has charge of such cases as I 
presumed yours to be. Eespectfully, 

(Signed) Simon Cameron." 

"Fort Warren, March 31, 1862. 
"Hon. Simon Cameron, Lochiel, near Harrisburg : 

" Sir: I have to thank"^ you for your prompt reply to my re- 
quest for information as to the causes which induced you to issue 
an order for my transfer to Fort Lafayette. Your reply of the 
24th, stating your surprise at learning I had been sent there by 
your order, and that you knew nothing of my arrest until you 
saw it in the papers, and presuriied it had^een done by order of 
the State Department, confirms me in my supposition, that your 
name had been used either without your knowledge, or inadvert- 
ently signed to a paper without heeding its contents. It was 
obtained somehow through the District Attorney. I give you a 
copy of the document upon which Colonel Burke took charge of 
me and placed me in Fort Lafayette : 

"'Philadelphia, September 13, 186L 
"'Lieut.-Col. Martin Burke, Commanding Fort Hamilton: 
" ' Dear Sir : Permit me to introduce to you my Deputy, Mr. 



276 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Sharkey, who carries with him Mr. "Winder, to be delivered to 
your custody per order of Secretary of War. 

Tour obedient servant, 
(Signed) Wm. Millward, U. S. Marshal' 

" I am respectfully yours, 

(Signed) Wm. H. Winder." 

» Fort Warren, Slst March, 1862, 
"Hon. Simon Cameron, Lochiel, near Harrisburg: 

" Si)' : Since writing to you to-day, I have received the follow- 
ing copy of a despatch from Philadelphia. 

'"65. Washington, 11th September, 1861. 

'"Geo. a. Coffey, U. S. District Attorney: 

'"Have telegraphed Marshal Millward to arrest Wm. H. 
Winder, and transfer him to Fort Lafayette. 

(Signed) Simon Cameron, Secretarj^ of War.' 

"I have supposed this may recall to your mind the communi- 
cation of Mr. Coffey, to which apparently it is a re2)l3^ 
" I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) Wm. H. Winder." 

" Lochiel, 2d April, 1862. 
"W. H, Winder, Esq.: 

" Sir: I have enclosed your letter of the 31st, received to-day, 
to the Secretary of State, and disavowed all knowledge of your 
arrest, with request for your release, if you have been held by 
my direction. Very respectfully, 

(Signed) Simon Cameron." 

«' Fort Warren, 5th April, 1862. 
"Hon. Simon Cameron, Lochiel, near Harrisburg: 

^^ Sir: 1 have been much gratified by*the receipt of your letter 
of 2d April, in which you advise me of your having sent my 
(first) letter of Slst March, to the Secretary of State, with re- 
quest for my release, if I have been held by your direction. 

" This is satisfactory, and is all the action the case requires at 
your hands, unless, indeed, a disregard of your request should 
render it proper for your own vindication against an act which 
you repudiate, but the responsibility for which is placed on your 
name by the record. Your obedient servant, 

(Signed) W. H. Winder." 



WILLIAM H. WINDER. 277 

On tlie 6tli of May, lie was summoned into tlie presence of 
tlie Commissioners Dix and Pierpont. General Dix sought 
by argument to remove his objections to giving bis parole, 
contending, that doing so could not be construed into a taint 
upon his conduct. Mr. Winder gave his reasons on the other 
side, that if no taint v^as intended, and it was, as he said, 
their object to hold him guiltless, an unconditional discharge 
would leave no doubt of an entire acquittal, while to hold 
him there, admittedly guiltless of wrong, except on condition 
of parole, was without excuse. General Dix specified as ex- 
ceptional items his correspondence with Senators Davis and 
Toombs, and Messrs. Breckinridge, Burnett, Vallandigham, 
and Hallock of the "Journal of Commerce." Mr. Winder 
took issue with him upon them, in the manner stated in a let- 
ter of the 9th of May, to these gentlemen. The Secretary, 
Webster, said he had received treasonable letters from C. H. 
Winder, of Washington ; but on Mr. Winder objecting to the 
word "treasonable," General Dix directed the Secretary to 
Btrike out the word from his notes. General Dix said he (W.) 
knew that the war to which he was opposed, was forced on 
the Federal Government by an impending attack on the 
Federal Capital. 

Mr. Winder denied in toto the fact or purpose of an impend- 
ing capture of Washington. He stated that the Confederacy 
had not a soldier within five hundred miles of the City of 
Washington ;' that not a single soldier had been set in motion 
to proceed there; that the States of North Carolina and 
Virginia interposed their whole breadth between Washington 
City and the Confederacy ; that the first had refused to call 
a convention, even to consider the question of secession, and 
that two-thirds of the convention of the latter were opposed 
to secession ; that in fact there did not exist a scintilla of 
evidence that the Confederacy entertained the purpose, much 
less had forces in imminent proximity hastening to the cap- 
ture. To all of this General Dix had nothing to urge but 
that he believed that in Virginia, Mason and others were 
raising troops for that purpose. He acquitted Hunter, as 
being a mere '■'■doctrinaire^" as he called him, from any active 



278 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

participation. Mr. "Winder stated, in regard to the relative 
position of the State and Federal Governments, that the re- 
solutions of 1798-9 embodied his opinion. The Secretary 
(Webster) greedily snatched at this statement, as though he 
had pinned him with conclusive evidence of treason ; and he 
noticed, a few days afterward, in a Eepublican paper in Bos- 
ton, a bitter article, denouncing these resolutions as the cock- 
atrice egg from which the monster secession was hatched. 

Mr. Winder addressed Messrs. Dix and Pierpont a long 
letter, in which he refutes the card of those gentlemen, pub- 
lished in New York papers of November. The subjoined 
copy of the card is taken from the " New York Herald," of 
19th November, 1862 : 

«' November 12, 1862. 

"Dear Sir: In answer to your inquiry as to the facts of the 
case of Wm. H. Winder, a prisoner of state in Fort Warren, we 
reply, that on investigation it appears that Winder was arrested 
by order of the late Secretary of War; that a large number of 
letters and papers were seized, tending to show disloyalty to the 
Government, and a purpose to aid the rebellion. But after a 
careful investigation of all the papers, and after a personal exam- 
ination of Mr. Winder, we determined to release him on his giv- 
ing his parole not to take up arms against the United States, or 
to give aid to the enemy, which he refused, and as we are advised, 
there has been no day since when he might not have freely left 
the Fort upon that simple parole. 

Very respectfully yours, 
(Signed) John A. Dix, Major-General, 

Edwards Pierpont." 

In August, 1862, he addressed the following letter to Mr. 
Stanton, of which no notice was ever taken : 

" Fort Warren, 20th August, 1862. 
" To Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington : 

^'Sir : More than eleven months have elapsed since my arrest 
and the seizure of all my papers. During the last six months 
of this confinement, ray clerk has been sick and absent from the 
city, so that I have not had a word from him, and my affairs, 



WILLIAM H. WINDER. 279 

alread}- most damagingly embarrassed, are threatened with a 
more complete ruin. 

" At the present moment, my personal attention is vitally im- 
portant to the carrjnng into effect some proposed arrangements 
in relation to my affaii'S, and for this purpose I desire a leave 
of absence from this Fort for thirty days. In order to obviate 
any hesitation which might arise, I will state my readiness to 
give parole not to engage in political or military discussions, also 
to report myself to the commanding oificer of this Fort within 
thirt}^ days from the date of my leaving it. As numerous par- 
ties confined with me have had this leave, after only a few months' 
imprisonment, I trust it is no misplaced reliance by me to antici- 
pate a like consideration. 

" 1 am, sir, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) W. H. Winder, of Philadelphia." 

On the 26th of October, 1862, Messrs. George W. Biddle, 
Wm. B. Reed, and Peter McCall, of Philadelphia, arrived in 
Boston, to sue out a writ of habeas corpvs. Mr. Biddle tele- 
graphed to the Secretary of "War for permission to see the pris- 
oner, but received a peremptory refusal. Thus it will be 
seen he was refused access to counsel, while other prisoners 
were allowed visitors, and in some instances, daily. 

On the 28th of October, his counsel applied for a writ of 
habeas corpus, the issue of which had been delayed to enable 
the District Attorney to receive instructions from Washing- 
ton. If tlie Administration had relied on Horace Binney's 
argument and authority to suspend the habeas corpvs, the 
District Attorney would have received instructions to oppose 
the issue or plead this right. If not sure on that point, and 
it had any evidence of guilt, legal or moral, on his part, 
which would secure public condemnation and palliate the 
outrage on the Constitution and law by a too eager, but 
manifestly patriotic impulse, it would have adduced it. But 
discarding Mr. Binney's argument as unsound, and destitute 
of the other, it aggravated its wickedness b}^ imposing upon 
the commander of Fort Warren the ignominy of sneaking 
from the just action of the law, and with the military resist- 



280 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ing the riglitml action of the Court. The followhig return 
to the writ of habeas corpus issued by Justice Cliflbrd, will 
explain the state of affairs, and the remarks of William B. 
Reed, Esq., and Judge Clifford will complete a picture, which 
will ever cause posterity a blush of shame over the frailties 
of the present generation. 

At the opening of the United States Circuit Court, Octo- 
ber 29, 1862, at ten o'clock, Mr. Wm. B. Reed read the fol- 
lowing affidavit of B. F. Bayley : 

"I, Benjamin F. Bayley, being duly sworn, do depose and say 
that 1 am one of the deputies of the Sheriff of the County of 
►Sutfolk, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That on Tues- 
day, the 28th day of October, A. D. 1862, there was placed in my 
hands for service a writ of habeas corpus, a £;opy of which is 
hereto annexed, directed to Colonel Justin Dimick, Command- 
ant of Fort Warren, or to any officer under him liaving charge 
of William H. Winder, commanding him to bring tlie body of 
said Winder, then confined in said Fort Warren, to be dealt with 
as to law and justice should appertain. That upon receiving 
said writ, I immediately proceeded to Commercial Wharf, in the 
port of Boston, where the steamboat plying between the said 
port and said Fort Warren was lying, and stated to the captain 
in charge of said boat, that I desired to proceed therein to Fort 
Warren as a messenger from the United States Court, with papers 
lor said Colonel Justin Dimick. The said captain told me that 
his orders Avere positive not to allow awj one to go in said boat 
without a pass from Colonel Dimick, said orders having been 
received on Friday last, the 24th inst. That being prevented 
I'rom proceeding in said boat, 1 did, on the morning of Wednes- 
day, the 29th day of October, 1862, receive from the counsel of 
said Winder, certain instructions in regard to the service of the 
said writ of the following tenor: 

" You are intrusted with the service of a writ of habeas corpus, 
issued by order of Hon. Nathan Clifford, a Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, to be served upon Colonel Justin 
Dimick, at Fort Warren. 

" You will have with you the original wi'it, with an attested 
copy thereof 



WILLIAM H. WINDER. 281 

"You will procure a proper conveyance to take you to Port 
Warren, and land there, in order to serve the writ as directed. 

"Upon landing, or meeting the sentry, or other person at the 
Fort whom you may first meet, you will respectfully inquire for 
Colonel Dimick, stating you have a paper to deliver to him from 
Judge Clifford, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Should you be allowed to see Colonel Dimick, you will 
respectfully deliver to him the original writ, saying, at the same 
•time, ' This is a writ from Judge Cliiford,' and at once return to 
Boston, when you will draw up a statement of the time and 
mode of service. Should the sentry or party with whom you 
first communicate refuse you permission to see Colonel Dimick, 
you will ask by what authority you are refused; if none is 
stated, and the refusal be persisted in, you will hand a cojDy of 
the writ to the sentry or other party, asking him to deliver it to 
Colonel Dimick, saying you will wait for an answer, and bring 
itj if received. If this be refused, you will return at once. 

"Should 3^ou be refused permission to land, and the refusal be 
persisted in upon your stating that you have a paper for Colonel 
Dimick, you will at once return, and make a report of what you 
have done. 

"Should Colonel Dimick be absent from the Fort, you will 
communicate, or endeavor to communicate, with the officer in 
command, in the manner herein above set forth. 

"That upon receiving said instructions, I hired a sail-boat, in 
the port of Boston aforesaid, manned with two men, and was 
accompanied by John II. Clark, a reputable citizen of the County 
of Middlesex, in this Commonwealth, and proceeded therein to 
Fort Warren, to serve the said writ according to my instructions. 
That I arrived near to said Fort Warren at about three o'clock of 
the afternoon of said 29th da}' of October, when I perceived a hody 
of about fifty armed men, drawn up in military array, n^ar the 
place of landing. That, upon nearing the landing, I was hailed 
by a sentinel, and told by him to keep off. That I then told said 
sentinel that I' had a communication to make to Colonel Dimick, 
and approached a little nearer to said landing. That the said 
force was marched down to the landing, when I was again per- 
emptorily ordered, by a person in command of said force, to 
keep off, and was prevented from landing. That, finding it im- 



282 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

possible to land, or approach nearer to the said Fort, I directed 
the boat, in which I was, to be put about, and returned to the port 
of Boston, where I ari'ived at about five o'clock of the afternoon 
of the same day, having been forcibly prevented from serving 
the said writ. That I verily believe, had I attempted to effect a 
landing at said Fort Warren, after having been warned away, as 
hereinbefore stated, I should have been prevented from so doing 
by a force of armed men drawn up at the landing ; and that, to 
the best of my belief, it was impossible for me to land and serve 
the said writ. And that further I say not. 

Benj. F, Bayley. 

*' Sworn and subscribed this 30th day of October, A.D. 1862. 
G. S. HiLLARD, Justice of the Peace." 

Mr. Reed then addressed the Court as follows : 
" May it please your Honor: Having presented to the Court 
this affidavit, the counsel for the relator beg leave to say, that 
we came to this jurisdiction to solicit the process of the law, 
in order to release from a long, and, as we believe, unlawful 
imprisonment (for nearly fourteen months) a fellow-citizen 
of Pennsylvania. We deferred any action until the District 
Attorney should have full opportunity of communicating 
with the authorities at "Washington. We came prepared and 
anxious to meet and discuss any grave questions of law which 
the officers of the Government might raise in opposition to 
this discharge. The Court granted the writ of relief which 
was asked for, but its execution has been evaded and resisted, 
80 as to prevent the consideration and decision of these ques- 
tions. In the case decided by the Chief Justice of the United 
States, that of Merriman, the military officer to whom the pro- 
cess v/as directed made a return, in form respectful, and this, 
too, at a time of local disturbance, and on the edge of actual 
war. But, here in Massachusetts, many hundred miles away 
from any scene of war, where perfect peace reigns, and every 
peaceful relation of life is maintained, and the Court is regu- 
larly transacting the ordinary and profitable business of the 
Government — here in Massachusetts, the writ which your 



WILLIAM H. WIN DEE. 283 

Honor granted is both evaded and resisted, and an imprisoned 
American citizen is denied the common right of knowing who 
are his accusers, and of what he is accused. Your Honor's 
writ is that of the United States ; and that peaceful writ the 
military force of the Government prevents us from executing. 
At this moment, we can do no more. We submit the facts 
this affidavit discloses. We beg to express to your Honor our 
high sense of the kindness and consideration we have received 
at your hands in this effort to assert the supremacy of the 
law and the rights of the citizen." 

Judge Clifford remarked, that nothing more could be done 
toward effecting a service of the writ. The service has been 
prevented by force. He deeply regretted that any officer 
should obstruct the service of process, especially a process of 
this kind. But he was beyond the control of the law, and 
the Court could not command the physical force necessary to 
compel its service. Let the writ be placed on file, to be 
served when service may be practicable. 

It may perhaps not be inappropriate here to state, that this 
action of Messrs. Reed, Biddle, and McCall was spontaneous 
and unprompted, and of which Mr. Winder had no intima- 
tion until after their arrival at Boston. It was a generous 
and patriotic attempt to rescue the civil authorities from the 
military grasp, which had paralyzed it, and a noble endeavor 
to vindicate the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws. 
In Boston, they were met in a spirit of cordiality by some of 
the most distinguished members of the bar of that city — 
Judge Curtis, Sydney Bartlett, Esq., Samuel Dexter Brad- 
ford, Esq., Hon. George S. Ilillard, Mr. Tickner, and others, 
all of whom felt the deep humiliation of the country under 
the ignoble despotism of a perjured Administration. On the 
Slst of October, Mr. Winder addressed a letter to Hon. George 
S. Hillard, of Boston, who had been one of his counsel, thank- 
ing him for his services rendered, and making some com- 
ments on his case. The letter was returned to him as con- 
traband, with the following indorsement : 



284 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" Eespectfully returned, as being contrary to instructions of 
Colonel Dimick. 

" By order of Colonel Dimick. 

Edward R. Parky, 
1st Lieut. 14th Infantry, Post Adjutant." 

On the return of the letter, he addressed Colonel Dimick 
the following : 

" Port Warren, November 1, 1862, 

" Sir: Yesterday you refused to let pass a note to ray counse? 
in Boston, unless all of its contents should be exj^unged except 
the paragraph making acknowledgments of his j)rofessional ser- 
vices. 

"I therefore deem it due to myself to call your attention to 
the following facts: 

"1. That my confinement in Port Lafayette was under an 
alleged order of the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron ; and that 
there is on record no other authority for my confinement there 
and here. 

" 2. That you ai-e perfectly aware that General Cameron de- 
nies all knowledge of my ari-est, repudiating the act, because the 
whole of my correspondence with him on the subject passed 
through your hands, open, and under your perusal. 

"3. You know perfectly well that an imprisonment here under 
order of a Department, without charge, warrant, or other form 
of law, would be a clear violation of the rights of a citizen under 
the Constitution and the laws, subjecting the violatoi-s to penalty. 

"4. You know that the record does not show even the color 
of that authority. 

" 5. You know how stringently the law prohibits the opening 
of letters of other parties, even if lawfully in custody. 

"6. You know full well the unquestionable right of all citizens 
to have counsel, and to confer with them alone and bj" sealed let- 
ters, even though legally in custody under charge of the most 
serious crime. 

"7. You know I have sedulously sought to learn if there was 
any charge of crime against me, declai'ing my readiness to meet 
any such. 

" 8. You know that no charge of crime has been made against 
me. 



WILLIAM H. WINDER. 285 

" 9, You know that, for the express purpose of forcing a lawful 
issue on the question of my incarceration here, a writ of habeas 
corpus was issued and addressed to you. 

" 10. You know that you diligently and designedly thwarted 
the process of the Court, preventing by threatened force its service 
upon you, evading your just responsibility to the law. 

" 11. You know full well, that in accordance with the Consti- 
tution and the laws, it was your bounden duty as a good citizen 
and officer to allow the service of the writ, and to obey its sum- 
mons. 

"If to your knowledge or in your opinion I have erred in any 
of the above, I beg your prompt correction, as it would cause me 
great regret to have misrepresented you in any manner ; but on 
the contrary, I will rejoice at any explanation which may relieve 
you of what now seems to be your responsibility. 

" If I have not erred, then the deduction from the foregoing 
would seem to be clear, that, knowing that I have been feloni- 
ously incarcerated, and that there is no warrant or lawful au- 
thority for my detention, you neverth«less continue to hold me 
in custody, an abettor. 

" That with a full knowledge of the law in regard to opening 
letters, you aggravate its daily breach by refusing to allow us to 
receive or to send freely our letters. 

" That, knowing as you do, the undoubted right of every citizen 
to appeal to the law for relief against illegal restraint, j'ou have 
by force and design resisted and defeated the solemn efforts of 
the law, because you knew you held me in unlawful confinement, 
and excluded from personal interview as my counsel have been, 
you suppress a letter which is addressed to my counsel, and ex- 
clusively confined to such views of my case as I wish presented 
to him. 

"I now protest against any interposition between me and my 
counsel by you, and indeed against your keeping me here, and I 
demand of you evidence of any authority whatever, real or pre- 
tended, except the physical force of your soldiers, for holding me a 
prisoner, for opening and reading all my letters to and fro, and 
for suppressing all that are distasteful. 

"If you have the means to justify yourself, I shall certainly 
receive such an answer : if you can find none to justify you, I 



286 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

would suggest that you would adopt such a course as will find 
its justification in the Constitution and the laws which you have 
sworn to support, on penalty of perdition if you prove false to 
them. KespectfuUy yours, 

(Signed) W. H. Winder. 

" Col. Justin Dimick." 

A letter to the Hon. James Brooks, member of Congress 
from New York City, was at first suppressed, and afterward, 
on liis importimity, sent by tlie Colonel to the Adjutant-Gen- 
eral's Office, Washington, from which Mr. Brooks never re- 
ceived it. 

In a few days afterward, every prisoner was unconditionally 
discharged, without even the stain of a charge ! They gladly 
left Fort Warren, and would, if they could, have left behind 
the recollection of the indignities endured within its walls. 
The state and war prisoners were mixed up promiscuously. 
Mr. AYinder had war j)risoners in the room with him, who 
were more favor^, for they had the liberty of the whole 
island, while the state prisoners were restricted to the square 
within the wails of the Fort, until after the visit of Messrs. 
Dix and Pierpont. 

Immediately after his release, he proceeded to "Washington 
to obtain his papers from Mr. Seward. The following corre- 
spondence will give the history of the matter. 

"Hon. WiM. H. Seward, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : At the request of Wm. H. Winder, Esq., one of my 
constituents, I would ask the return to him of his books, letter- 
books, letters, papers, and a picture of John C. Calhoun, taken 
from Mr. Winder's office and domicil in Philadelphia, at the time 
of his arrest in that city, in September, 1861. These effects are 
now in the custody of Mr. Webster, of your Department, as Mr. 
Winder is informed. 

"An early reply will oblige him, and, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Si-gned) Chas. J. JBiddle 

" House of Eepresentatives, December 9, 1862." 



WILLIAM H. WINDER. 287 

" Department of State, 
"Washington, December 10, 1862. 
" The Hon. Ch.\rles J. Biddle, House of fiepresentatives : 

" Sir : Your letter of the 9th instant has been received, and 
referred to the War Department. 

''Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) F. W. Seward, 

Assistant Secretary." 

" Sir : I learned from the Mayor of Philadelphia, that my 
books, letters, papers, etc., had been sent to you by your order, 
(copy of which he showed to me,) by Detective Franklin, who 
took receipt for them. I learned this from several parties who 
had interviews with you, and that they were under special charge 
of Mr. Webster, of your Department, who acted as secretary to 
Messrs. Dix and Pierpont. Under this state of affairs, I feel I 
have a right to claim of you their return; for wherever they 
ma}'' be, they are attainable by you. 

"I do, therefore, now demand of you the immediate return 
of all my books, papers, and letters, and whatever else of mine 
which may have been sent to you. I look to you personally for 
their return, and trust that, recognizing the propriety of my 
demand, you will take the necessary steps to put me promptly 
in possession of them. 

" I am, sir, j^our obedient servant, 

(Signed) W. H. Winder. 

"Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Washington, 22d December, 1862." 

To this letter, Mr. Seward made the following reply : 

"Mr. Seward presents his compliments to Mr. Winder, and 
has to inform him that his note of this date has been referred 
to the proper officer, Major L. C. Turner, Associate Judge Advo- 
cate of the Army. 

"Department of State, 22d December, 1862. 

Mr. Winder replied to the Secretary in a long letter, ac- 
knowledging his courteonsness — stating the violation of his 
papers at the time of arrest — his fruitless endeavors for 
three weeks to recover them, and the means which he had 
taken to obtain tlxem, and the evasion and procrastination 



288 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

that liaci been practised on him, and urging the immediate 
return of them. Mr. Winder again addressed the Secretary 
on the 27th instant : 

" Washington, 27th December, 1862. 

"Sir: I beg leave to recall your attention to my note to you 
of 23d instant. While I fully appreciate the engrossing nature 
of your official duties, in excluding other matters from your 
attention, I am sure you will make equal allowance to my 
urgency to be freed from a very inconvenient expenditure of 
time in seeking to obtain my property, which I had a right to 
expect to receive immediately on demand. 

'* I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) W. H. Winder." 

On receiving the evasive reply to Mr. Biddle, Mr. W. wrote 
to the Mayor of Philadelphia, for a copy of the receipt which 
Detective Franklin stated, he had received on the surrender 
to the State Department of the papers. He replied : " I 
directed Chief Franklin to furnish a copy of the receipt given 
to him for the papers delivered to the Government, and this 
morning, after search among the documents in his office, he 
reports to me that he is unable to find it, but as soon as dis- 
covered you shall be informed of its purport." 

On the 3d of January, the Mayor, in reply to Mr. Winder's 
letter, asking the name of the party signing the receipt and 
its tenor, enclosed Mr. Franklin's report. The report says : 

" Some weeks since, I was requested by your Honor to furnish 
the receipt given me for certain pajiers belonging to Mr. Win- 
der, of this city, seized at the time of his arrest by order of the 
Government. I have carefully examined my papers, but have 
been unable to find it, and have no doubt it has been destroj^ed 
with other surplus matter. 1 think, however, there can be no 
difficulty in finding all the documents referred to, as I understood 
from Mr. Geo. Coffey, United States District Attorney, yesterday, 
that he was in possession of all of them; and I have no doubt, 
Mr. Winder may get all the information desired by communi- 
cating with him. 

(Signed) Benjamin Franklin, 

Chief Detective, Department Police." 



WILLIAM H. W I N D E R. 289 

It occurred to Mr. Winder, when reading this, that liis 
correspoijidence with Secretary Seward had induced him to 
send on the papers to Philadelphia, to keep up the idea, that 
he had not possession of them. Upon his return to Phila- 
delphia, he called on Mr. Coffey, and showed him the report 
of Franklin. He said he was in correspondence with the 
State Department, and the disposition of them would depend 
upon the result of it. "Winder understood him to say, that 
under direction of the Department, he was examining to see 
if a prosecution could not be made, and that any further 
communication on the subject must be made through counsel. 
After some time, his counsel, Mr. Biddle, wrote to ]Mr. Coffc}', 
requesting the return of Mr. "W.'s effects, to which Mr. Coffey 
verbally replied, by stating, that he would write to the State 
Department, and if no order to the contrary should be re- 
ceived, he would return them. Accordingly, after a week's 
delay, he surrendered a box, on the top of which was — 

" From the Department of State, U. S. A. 

Geo. A. Coffey, Esq., XJ. S. District Attorney, 

Philadelphia, Ponna." 

— shoidng it came from the State De/partment — was in jJossession 
of 8ec7^etary Seward^ while he was referring Mr. JBlddlc and Mr. 
Winder to the War DejMrtment. This box contained all of 
the effects wliich have as yet been returned. 

19 



C. F. RUST. 

THIS case presents an instance in wliicli the malice and 
vindictiveness of the " one-man power" banished an un- 
offending citizen from his home, and drove him into the 
Confederacy, there to remain during the war, under penalty 
of death should he return. 

About four o'clock, on the morning of Friday, the 8th of 
May, 1863, an individual named Isaac H. D. Knowles, an 
United States Detective, called at the house of Mr. C. F. 
Rust, near Seaford, Sussex County, Delaware, and arrested 
liim. When asked for his authority, he replied, " By order 
of General Schenck," and when requested to produce it, pre- 
sented a general order for the arrest of deserters, blockade- 
runners, and dangerous persons, which was signed by that 
officer. Mr. Rust replied, that he did not belong to either 
of the classes of persons named ; but this explanation had no 
effect in his case, as his arrest had been predetermined. 

Knowles made no specific charges, nor did he inform the 
prisoner wliy he had been arrested. 

He was conveyed to Wilmington, and thence to Baltimo.-e, 
where he was confined in a cell at the Central Police Station, 
and detained there until sunrise, with the drunkards, thieves, 
and prostitutes that find their way thither during the night. 

He was removed from there to the Gilmore House, and 
placed in a front basement, formerly used as a billiard saloon, 
without either chair or bed. While confined there, he ad- 
dressed a note to Thomas F. Bayard, Esq., an attorney at 
law, of Wilmington, (son of the Hon. James A. Baj'ard,) who 
was then sojourning in Baltimore, requesting him to call 
upon him at the Gilmore House, as he wished to obtain his 
advice. Mr. Bayard called, but was refused an audience with 
the prisoner. 

290 



C. F. EUST. 291 

Eemoved fi'om his confinement at the Gilmore House, he 
was placed on the cars and carried to Harper's Ferry, leaving 
Baltimore at half-past eight o'clock on Saturday night, and 
arriving at the Ferry before daybreak on Sunda}^ morning. 
He was then placed in a church, under guard, until Mon- 
day, when he was taken to Martinsburg, "West Virginia, and 
incarcerate^ in the county jail at that place, with several 
other prisoners. The nights being chilly, and having an 
insufficiency of clothing, he suffered much from cold, until 
kindly furnished with a blanket by a deserter from an Ohio 
regiment. 

While confined in the jail, Mrs. Young, the wife of the 
postmaster at that place, requested permission to furnish him 
w^ith some food, which was denied. 

On Monday morning, he was placed in a Government wagon, 
without seats, sent over a rough pike to Winchester, and 
there taken before a Provost Marshal, named Alexander, of 
whom he inquired the cause of his arrest, and was informed 
that it was " disloyalty to the flag." Rust asked how he 
knew that he was disloyal, when he had received no trial, 
and no proof had been adduced to substantiate the charge. 
Alexander replied, that the fact of his being arrested and 
exiled from his home, was proof conclusive. He then asked 
the jMarshal if he thought the arresting of a man without a 
warrant, exiling him from his home, and forbidding him to 
return, during the continuance of the war, on pain of being 
treated as a spy, would make him love and respect a flag 
under which such flagitious outrages were committed. 

The Marshal made no reply to Mr. Rust, but handed an 
order to a sergeant, directing him " to conduct him (Rust) to 
Dixie, never to return." 

The sergeant conducted him to the turnpike gate, about 
one and a quarter miles from Winchester, on the road lead- 
ing to Strasburg, the intervening space being considered 
neutral ground, as Winchester was then occupied by the 
Federal forces, and Fisher's Hill by the Confederates. At 
the gate, he was directed by the sergeant to make his way to 



292 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

Riclimond, or any other place in the Confederacy that might 
suit him, at the same time reiterating the Marshal's order. 
The order was promptly obeyed, Rust being glad to escape 
confinement even upon such terms. He was thus separated 
from his family for two years and four months, without any 
sufficient reason ever being assigned for it. 

During his exile, his son, William C. Rust, a boy of sixteen, 
was confined in Fort Delaware for one hundred days, on sus- 
picion of having assisted his uncle, William T. Cooper, (a son 
of Ex-Governor William B. Cooper,) to escape from prison, 
the said. Cooper having been a Eebel soldier, captured at 
Eomney, Virginia. Mrs. Rust was several times before mil- 
itary commissions, and annoyed in other \yays during her 
husband's absence. 

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Rust was forty -four years 
of age. By occupation he is a farmer. He has never held 
an office, although in the politics of his county he has always 
actively participated. 



nOX. ANDREW DU^^CAN DUFF. 

HON. AITDREW DUjSTCAK DUFF, was born in tlie State 
of Illinois, in 1820, and has resided in Franklin County, 
in that State, since 1825. Of him it may be truly said, " he 
has been the architect of his own fortune," for, in the year 
1836, he was left an orphan boy, destitute of means, and with- 
out education. In 1845, he was married to Miss Mary Eliza 
Powell. In 1847, he commenced the study of law in the 
office of Hon. W. A. Dennins; then President Judo-e of the 
Third Judicial Circuit of Illinois ; but shortl}^ after, the Gov- 
ernor of the State having called for four regiments of volun- 
teers, to be commissioned during the war with Mexico, young 
Dufl:' enlisted as a private, and served with great, distinction 
under Colonel E. W. B. ISTewly, until the close of the war. 

After his return from Mexico, he resumed the study of the 
law in the office of Judge Denning, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1850. He soon attained a high standing and reputa- 
tion at the bar, and after having filled many offices of honor 
and trust, both by election and appointment, with great satis- 
faction and credit, he was, in 1861, elected Judge of the 
Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, then composed of 
"Williamson, Franklin, and Saline Counties, for the term of 
six years. In the same year he was elected a member of the 
Constitutional Convention of Illinois, and took a prominent 
part as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciarj^'. In 
order to defeat the re-election of Judge Duff to the bench, 
the district was attempted to be changed. Franklin County 
was stricken from the district, and other counties added. 
But the Supreme Court set aside the proceedings as illegal 
and void, and Judge Duff, having received a renomination, 

293 



294 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

was again elected by a large majority, although tlie district 
had gone Republican the year before. 

Judge DuU', after his re-election to the bench, established 
a law-school in Benton, Illinois, which is now in a flourishing 
condition. He is deservedly popular, is a good jurist, and an 
able speaker and writer. At the time of his arrest aiid im- 
prisonment, his family consisted of a pious and Christian wife, 
a son eight years of age, and three daughters still younger. 
Judge Duft" himself is in communion with the Church, and 
is in all respects a high-toned and Christian gentleman. 

On Monday, August 11, 1862, Judge Duft* commenced the 
August term of the Williamson County Circuit Court, at 
Marion, twenty miles south of Benton, the place of his resi- 
dence. On Thursday evening, August 14, two United States 
Detectives, named Scott and Woodrutf, arrived in Marion, 
from Cairo. Scott was an Englishman, and possessed some 
of the traits of a gentleman. "Woodruff was in appearance 
the embodiment of villany. In the evening, after the ad- 
journment of court, Scott, who was personally acquainted 
with Judge John II. Mulkey, of Cairo, privately communi- 
cated to him their business, which was to arrest him (Judge 
Mulkey,) Hon. Wm. J. Allen, then a member of Congress 
from the Ninth District ; John A. Clemenson, State's Attor- 
ney for the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit ; and Judge A. D. 
Duff, the President Judge of said Circuit, and several other 
prominent gentlemen of that section of the State. 

The gentlemen, on learning the facts, and knowing the ar- 
bitrary power then existing, had an interview with Detective 
Scott, and informed him that he might consider them prison- 
ers ; that they would be ready at 12 o'clock m., the following 
day, to accompany him to Cairo. This proved satisfactory 
to him. At 10 o'clock a.m., on Friday, the 15th inst.. Judge 
Duft' adjourned the court, leaving a lai'ge amount of both 
criminal and civil business unfinished. 

They reported at the hotel, according to the arrangement 
of the day previous, and soon after started for Cairo, in 



ANDREW DUNCAN DUFF. 295 

charge of the two detectives ; at which place they arrived 
about sundown the same evening. 

The party were taken before Major J. W. Merrill, Pro- 
vost Marshal, who required them to report to him the 4iext 
day at 9 o'clock a.m. They w'ere given the freedom o§ the 
city on parole, but were required to report in person once a 
day at the Marshal's office, until further orders. The most 
painful case among these arrests was that of Dr. Bundy, 
(whose case is elsewhere narrated,) the foreman of the grand 
jury, who was torn from the unfinished grave of his departed 
child, and not even allowed to pass his house to give a part- 
ing word of advice to his disconsolate wife and the heart- 
broken mother, in that afflicting hour of bereavement and 
death. The officer, who took them into custody, exhibited no 
writ or warrant for Judge Duff's arrest, nor, indeed, for any 
of the others, as no affidavit had then been made against any 
of the party. 

The Judge was arrested, as Officer Scott said, on informa- 
tion contained in a letter from Frankfort, at which place, he, 
on the 21st of the preceding July, had made a speech. This 
accurate and truthful letter stated it was made on the 28th. 
This statement was made in the presence of the Hon. Wm. 
J. Allen, Judge Mulkey, and others. Judge Duff then in- 
quired of the officer, what part of the speech was considered 
disloyal. In reply he said, " that he " (the Judge) " was charged 
with exposing frauds perpetrated on the Government, and that 
such exposition tended to discourage enlistments." Judge 
Duff said, that " he would plead guilty of that, if it was the 
charge, as he regarded it as the proudest day of his life, to 
be arrested for pleading for even-handed justice, and common 
honesty, in the use, management, and distribution of the 
j)eople's money ; and for publicly denouncing the thieves and 
villains who were robbing a tax-ridden people. Henceforth, 
he felt that his arrest had been determined on by the great 
sanhedrim or conclave of public plunderers at Sprini';field." 
On the way to Cairo, the officers informed him that they 
would have to go back to Franklin CcHinty, for proof against 



296 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

him. These proofs were the ex-parte affidavits afterward 
produced. 

On Monday morning, the officers left Cairo for the purpose 
of obtaining the evidence. They went to Frankfort and 
Benton, and there took the affidavits of four or five persons, 
who were the bitter partisan enemies of the Judge. The 
affidavits consisted of garbled and ex-jparte statements of what 
the affiants had heard him say in different speeches, com- 
mencing in Sejitember, 1861, and running through the whole 
of his speeches, from that time, until the Frankfort speech, 
made but a few weeks previously. These affidavits contained 
nothing more than could be found in almost all the Demo- 
cratic speeches of that period. As the officers were return- 
ing to Cairo, they found at Big Muddy Bridge, eighty miles 
distant, a vile wretch, named George Meyers, who was willing 
to swear to anything. This was the man so long looked for. 
Connovers, tlie future outgrowth of the war, were not so 
plenty then as at a subsequent period. lie was conducted to 
Carbondale, seven miles distant, and there, with a Republi- 
can named Budding for an amanuensis, the following affida- 
vit was drawn up at night, and reported as sworn to before 
a Justice of the Beace of Perry County, Illinois. 

"George Meyers, Sergeant of Captain Creed's company, sta- 
tioned at Big Muddy Bridge, in Jackson County, Illinois, aged 
twenty-three years, being duly sworn, deposes and says : 

"I am a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and have 
visited two meetings of that order in Wilhamson County. The 
first was on the night of the 10th of July, at the school-house, 
about six or seven miles from Marion, at which I was initiated 
by a person M-ho was termed the 'Worthy Chief A man named 
William Andrews went with me ; on which occasion, they took 
a book and read to me the laws, which were, as near as I can 
recollect: ' We are not to take up arms either for or against the 
United States, but we will bear true allegiance to those who may 
be members of the Golden Circle, and that we shall not take up 
arras against them, but be one, under a solid body.' This I was 
sworn to under penalty of death. I was not to allow it to be 



ANDEEW DUNCAN DUFF. 297 

known that I belonged to the order, except to those whom I 
knew to be members. 1 was then shown the sign and pass- 
words. 

"The second meeting was held about three miles from Blairs- 
ville, in Williamson County. Judge Duff was there, and seven 
or eight other speakers. Judge D, addresse4 the members, and 
said that I'egiment No. — (giving a number which I do not re- 
collect,) was to keep still for a few days, and they would have 
a great deal to do at home, as they would have to carry out what 
a third party had laid out to be done against Union ihen, as soon 
as the volunteers should have left. Several others addressed the 
m.eeting. From the conversation, I understood the members 
were expecting arms from Missouri. There were 300 persons 
present. 

his 

(Signed) George ^ Meyers." 

mark 

This affidavit was an nnmitio;ated falsehood from heo-in- 
ning to end. It contained no semblance of truth, as wall be 
seen in the sequeL Furthermore, it was illegal. Judge 
DuJEF proposed to the Marshal to bring Meyers to Cairo, and 
to satisfy himself of the truth of the statement, by an exam- 
ination, privately or otherwise. He wishoi^ to show, at the 
same time, that this falsifier could not tell a word about his 
antecedents, personal appearance, age, complexion, or lieight, 
and further, he offered to bear the exjienses of the trip. 
This proposition the Marshal refused, in defiance of the ex- 
plicitly worded sixth amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, "which says : "i^i all criminal prosecutions, the 
accused shall enjoy the right . ... to be confronted ivith the wit- 
nesses against him ; " and also of the ninth section of the Bill 
of Rights of the Constitution of the State of Illinois, which 
reads as follow^s : '■'■In all criminal jjrosecidions, the accused hath 
a rigid to be heard by himself or counsel, to demand the nature 
and cause of the accusation against him, to meet the witnesses 
FACE to face." Our readers will here perceive, that the Con- 
stitution of the United States and that of the State of Illi- 
nois, were violated by this one act. The Judge then said : 



298 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

" I have not been in Perry County since tlie lOtb of June, 
when I made a speech at Tamaroa, nor have I been nearer 
Blairsville than Carbondale or De Soto, since 1857 ; nor did 
I ever make a speech in my life but what was a public speech, 
addressed to persons of all political opinions who would 
come and hear me ; neither is there a truthful being on earth, 
who can say, that I ever joined, or ever belonged to the or- 
ganization of K. G. C.'s, under that or any name whatever. 
I never joined them, nor did any man ever ask me to join 
them." During the conversation with the Marshal, one of 
the detectives (Woodruff) informed the latter, that he knew 
Meyers in the 2d Illinois Cavalry, that he was then known 
under another name, and was universally regarded as "a liar, 
blackleg^ and scoundrel.'' 

"VYhile still confined at Cairo, the ISIarshal, Major Merrill, 
told Judge Duff, that he would have discharged him, but 
that Governor Yates had commanded him not to do so ; that 
"he" (the Governor) "would be able in a few days to send 
him ten times more evidence, and of a much more positive 
character." 

On the 26th of August, the " Daily Chicago Tribune " con- 
tained a copy of €he Me^-ers affidavit, and what purported to 
be an additional one, which filled more than two columns of 
that paper. This was the Governor's mouse — the mighty 
production of his herculean mental labors, which astonished 
the eyes of an alarmed and startled world. The earth shook 
under it, to its deepest foundations ! the heavens were gently 
bowed ! the sun was clothed in darkness ! the moon turned 
to blood ! and all nations and tribes of the earth fell on their 
faces and did mourn; even his Excellency, the Governor — 
blushed. The following was " the ten times more evidence " 
— the St. John's Gospel, which was intended to corroborate 
the Meyers affidavit. It boldly stated that on Sunday, the 
10th of August, 1862, he had attended a secret meeting of 
the Knights of the Golden Circle, at a place ten miles north 
of Pinckneyville, in Perry County ; that there w^ere at least 
400 Knights of the Golden Circle present, and that Judge 



ANDREW DUNCAN DUFF. 299 

A. T>. DuiF, Francis M. Youngblood, H. W. Newland, Joseph 
Crouch, and James S. Moore, of Franklin County ; David 
jSTeal, David Williams, Ezra Johnson, Dr. Blanchard, James 
Blenhois, Thomas Logan, (the General's brother,) Benjamin 
Harris, Cartright Da via, and Philip Davis, of Jackson County ; 
George W. Wall, D. M. Hoge, E. B. Rushing, Thomas Hush- 
ing, S. A. Baird, S. M. Pyle, Dr. Ross, 0. H. McCarver, Bed- 
ford Thurman, W. A. Harris, Stephen Duncan, and many 
others, of Perry County, were present, and that all those 
mentioned made speeches on the occasion. It further pre- 
tended to give an abstract of what each one said, and, as a 
matter of course, the language used by each was disloyal. 

Thomas Logan, in closing the meeting — as it averred — 
openly declared that, " as for himself, he was for Jeif Davis 
and the Southern Confederacy." The great length of this 
pronunciamento of the Governor prevents us from giving it 
in toto. But we quote verbatim one important paragraph. 
Speaking of the proceedings at the meeting, it says : " A 

LETTER WAS PRODUCED AND READ TO THE MEETING, DIRECTLY 

FROM Jeff Davis and Beauregard, to Edell Jones, stating 

THAT IF THE K. G. C.'s OF ILLINOIS, COULD FURNISH TAVO THOU- 
SAND MEN FOR THE CONFEDERATE ArMY, THE CONFEDERATE 

States would be fully able to succeed in their undertak- 
ing." This was an astounding revelation. At a time when 
the Federal Government was organizing an army of twelve 
hundred and fifty thousand men for the suppression of the 
rebellion, Jefi' Davis and Beauregard write to a 'poor, obscure 
orphan boy of Franklin County^ Illinois^ who could scarcely read 
or write his oion name, informing him that if the K. G. C.'s 
could furnish them with tivo thousand men, their cause would be 
safe. Could such an idea emanate from a 

, . . . " brain 
Healthful and undisturbed by factious fumes? " 

When this document first appeared in the papers, the 
Judge and his friends called upon the Provost Marshal, and 
demanded the name of the party who swore to it, but were 



OUU AMEEICAN" BASTILE. 

informed tliat the Governor had directed it to be withheld. 
At Washington City, Judge Dufi' again demanded the name 
of the person from tlie Judge Advocate, and received the 
same reply: "The Executive of the State of Illinois has re- 
quested the name to be withheld from the public." The 
Judge then came to the conclusion, that it had never been 
sworn to, but that it had been forged to assist in partisan 
measures, and that the document had been sent with a blank 
space, to Taniaroa, to be filled up with the names of all 
such persons as the Executive wished to oppress. 

Court convened in "Williamson County, on Monday, the 
11th of August, 1862, at Marion, midway between Benton 
and Vienna. The Judge having left one of his children quite 
ill at home on the 3d, he determined upon adjourning court 
at Vienna on Saturday, to enable him to reach his home that 
night, if possible, so as to spend Sunday with his family, and 
be at Marion, Monday morning, in time for court. Accord- 
ingly, on Saturday morning, the 9th inst. at about 10 o'clock, 
]]e left Vienna in company with Judge Mulkey, both travel- 
ling in the same buggy, Judge Mulkey going to Marion, 
Judge Duif to Benton. About seven miles from Marion the 
buggy broke down. He then left Judge JSIulkey at the house 
of a gentleman named Cash, from whom he borrowed a sad- 
dle, unharnessed his horse, and rode to Marion, which he 
reached at sundown. He then left his -horse, borrowed a 
horse and buggy from Hon, William J. Allen, and started 
for his home, which he reached at midnight. Sunday was 
spent at his home, and about town, where he saw and talked 
with many of the citizens of the place. On the following 
day, (Monday,) he convened the court at Marion, and was 
proceeding with business when arrested. The affidavits of 
nineteen citizens, of both political parties, were filed with the 
Judge Advocate at Washington, proving the truth of the 
above biatement, but it availed him nothing. 

As we have already shown the falsehood of this document 
in the Judge's case, we shall digress a little, to give our 



ANDEEW DUNCAN DUF F. 301 

readers furtLer proof of it iu the case of others. The Rev. 
0. H. McCarver, one of the party mentioned, preached to a 
large congregation on the day mentioned, (to wit, the 10th,) 
some twelve miles from Pinckneyville, when the affidavit 
says, that he was one of the twenty-five persons who ad- 
dressed the meeting at said ]5lace, and even giving his ^7ords. 
His arrest was also a cruel act of persecution, lie was torn 
from his family, friends, and home, ironed like a criminal, 
sent to Washington, and there confined in a loathsome prison 
for months. He was discharged without a trial, or even 
having any charge made against him, further than such as 
was contained in the Governor's evidence, and upon which 
he had been arrested. 

The party were -started for "Washington ahout the 1st 
of September, and on the 3d were committed to the Old 
Capitol Prison, with the exception of Judge Allen, who, be- 
ing very sick, was paroled, and left at the' Kirkwood House. 
Judge Duff was cruelly treated, for the first few days, in 
regard to eating and sleeping. He was at first compelled to 
eat with criminal prisoners, deserters, drunken soldiers, and 
those under court-martial, at what was called the hog-pen^ a 
place where several hundred prisoners rushed at meal-time 
to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Unable to bear the stench 
of the place, and the sight of the disgusting mass of half- 
putrid meat, he would grasp a piece of bread in his hand, 
and rush into the open air to eat it. Subsequently, through 
the intercession of Superintendent Wood, he was permitted 
to associate himself with other gentlemen, and form a mess. 
Henceforth he fared much better. 

While in the prison, a fellow-prisoner, Mr. Wm. A. Harris, 
received a letter from Mr. B. G. Roots, of Tamaroa, where 
the evidence on which he had been arrested was fabricated by 
his calumniators. Mr. Roots occupies a prominent position 
in the Republican party of Southern Illinois. It was written 
without any solicitation, or even communication, from Mr. 
Harris. It reads as follows : 



302 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" Tamaroa, Illinois, September 10, 1862. 
" Wm. a. Harris, Esq. : 

" Dear Friend : Believing, as I most fully do, that you are 
entirely innocent of any crime against the Government of the 
United States, I earnestly wish that I could do something to aid 
you in getting a trial, as I fully believe that all that is wanting 

to procure jov\y release is an investigation of your case 

I believe that the only evidence against j^ou is an aflSdavit first 
published in the 'Chicago Tribune.' .... But I speak delib- 
erately, and say only what I am ready to prove in any court, 
and before any officer who will take the testimony that I will 
procure, when I say that the affidavit contains so many lies, 
wilful, wicked lies, as shows fully that the affidavit is utterly un- 
worthy of belief. I say publicly, that if the man who swore to 
that affidavit knew what he swore to, that is, if he knew what 
statements were contained in the affidavit, he knew that he was 
swearing to a lie. Yes, to a host of lies." .... 

"We leave a candid public to make its own comments. 

Judge Duff" was held a prisoner for three months, sixty- 
eight days of which were spent in the Old Capitol. On the 
11th of November, 1862, he was discharged without a trial, 
or without being before any tribunal to hear his case. Before 
being discharged, he, together with Judge Mulkey and 
Messrs. Mahoney and Sheward, was required to subscribe 
and swear to an affidavit that they would not prosecute the 
persons who caused their arrest, or the heads of the Depart- 
ments. 

In concluding this narrative, we again quote from the 
Judge, who says : " Instead of regret, I feel a pride in the 
course I have hitherto pursued, in relation to the conduct of 
the late Federal Administration ; and when I die, I ask no 
prouder inscription on my humble tomb, than, ' Andrew D. 
Duff", one of the Tyrant's prisoners in the " Old Capitol," 
during the great moral struggle between freedom and despot- 
ism, in 1862.'" 



INVASION OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

THAT the more distant reader may the hetter understand 
the matter recorded in the following pages, a short de- 
Bcription of the place and people is necessary. 

The locality is the valley of the Fishing Creek, which, for 
romantic scenery, beautiful landscape, purity of its waters, 
health of its climate, and the richness of its soil, is not sur- 
passed by any of the many valleys that abound in Central 
Pennsylvania. It is situated in Columbia County, and de- 
rives its name from the stream that passes through its entire 
length. Fishing Creek rises in the North Mountain, and, 
after passing through the county from north to south, emp- 
ties into the Susqu:'hanna a short distance below Bloomsburg. 

The farms of the valley lie on both sides of this beautiful 
stream; while the valley itself is bounded, on either side, 
by high ridges. Along the northern part of the valley lie 
four townships — Sugar-Loaf, Benton, Fishing Creek, and 
Jackson. These townships, being the principal grounds of 
operation during the invasion, demand this further notice: 
Sugar-Loaf lies north along the mountain, and is bounded 
on the east by the line of Luzerne County; Benton lies 
south of Sugar-Loaf; Fishing Creek, south of Benton; and 
Jackson, west of Sugar-Loaf and Benton. 

The people are mostly farmers, with merchants, mechanics, 
etc. necessary in a rural district. They are a hard-working, 
industrious people, and instead of waiting for the crumbs 
that fall from some lordly table, they carefully nurse the 
earth, and she rewards them bountifully for their labor. 
They are hospitable and kind ; and the weary and needy are 
never turned from their doors empty. They contribute cheer- 
fully and liberally for the support of their schools, their poor, 

303 



804 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

their roads and their churches. Like their own mountains 
and the limpid streams that flow through them, they are free 
and independent. 

On Saturday evening, August 13, 1864, the quiet vilLage of 
Bloomshurg, the county seat of Columbia County, was sud- 
denly disturbed by the appearance on its streets of eight 
cavalrymen and forty infantry, with two pieces of artillery. 
The town was instantly in a state of great excitement. The 
exultation of the Abolitionists was most intense. Their eyes 
sparkled with delight, their loyal tongues were untied, and 
threats against Dem'^rats and Democratic printing-offices, 
with statements that troops were to scour the country, were 
in the mouths of loyal-leaguers and their followers. And a 
fierce desire, on the part of some of them, to inaugurate a 
reign of riot and bloodshed, was painfully apparent. 

On Tuesday morning following, JMajor-General Couch, com- 
manding the Department of the Susquehanna, (which in- 
cluded Columl:)ia County,) with two hundred and fifty more 
troops, made his headquarters in Bloomshurg. On the night 
of the 13th of August, a report reached Stillwater that it was 
their purpose to drrest the people, and to burn and destroy as 
they went. On consultation, it was concluded to call a meet- 
ing the next day, to consider the situation and determine 
what should be done. Accordingly, runners were sent out in 
every direction, and on Sunday a large number of persons 
collected at the barn of John Eantz, in Benton township. 
The most of the men were armed, and some of them advised 
opposition ; but better counsel prevailing, it was concluded to 
remain quiet, unless the troops commenced aggression ; in 
that case, they resolved to defend themselves as best they 
could. The non-reporting men who had been drafted, formed 
themselves into squads, and sought refuge in difierent places, 
to await the result of the coming of the soldiers. 

On Sunday morning, August 21, the troops at Blooms- 
hurg struck their tents, and took up the line of march for 
the scat of the " Fishing Creek Bebellion." Toward evening, 
they reached the point where the main road crosses the 



INVASION OF COLUMBIA, PENNA. 805 

creek at Stucker's Bottom. Here thej encamped for the 
night, and on Monday- the inhabitants were greeted with the 
novel spectacle of armed men marching in hostile array 
throngh their hitherto quiet vallo}-. Yet, ihc array was not 
very terrible in appearance, thongh there were infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery, five hundred strong. Unmolested, they 
continned their march to Appleman's Bottom, near Benton, 
where they encamped. On the following Sunday, their num- 
ber was increased to a thousand men. The citizens of the 
valley now enjoyed the sight (many of them for the first 
time) of a military camp. Here, the people flocked to hear 
the fife and drum, and to witness the mancjcnvres of dress 
parade. The morning reveille awoke the sleeping echoes of 
the surrounding hills, and the bugle enlivened the evening 
with its stirring notes. Trains of baggage- wagons, moving 
up and down the creek-road every day, and squads of men in 
uniform, either on foot or on horse, travelling in all direc- 
tions, presented to the ear and eye of the people, so unaccus- 
tomed to such things, scenes that kept them continually in a 
state of pleasant excitement. So harmless did the soldiers 
appear, and so peaceful were the intentions of tlie people, that 
a mutual acquaintance and friendship sprang up between 
them; and the former enjoyed the kindness of the latter, in 
the form of baskets well filled with the most suljstantial pro- 
visions. Though the Republicans knew of tlie raiding party, 
and had stated, in a few instances, the object of its coming, 
yet, having been in the neighborhood some time without 
making any demonstration that led to distrust, the people 
were lulled into security. It is true, tliat some had got an 
inkling of what was going on, and left their homes and 
remained in the woods all night, only to run into the snare 
that was laid for them as they returned to their homes in 
the -morning. 

Some time during the night of the 30th of August, a num- 
ber of squads were detailed, and each one yilaced under its 
appointed leader. The utmost secrecy was enjoined, and 
instructions given them to halt and ret:iiu any person they 
20 



306 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

met on the road, to surround eacli house, and guard it until 
daylight, and then to arrest every man and well-grown boy 
that should be found. These squads took different direc- 
tions ; one portion of them taking the main road down the 
creek, dividing off at each cross-road, until they reached 
nearly every house as far down as Stillwater, a distance of 
four miles. Another portion proceeded up the main road, 
and so dividing off at each cross-road, as before, until they 
extended their guards into Sugar-Loaf and Jackson. Ano- 
ther squad advanced as far as Cambria and Columbus, near 
the line, in Luzerne County. Such Avas the secrecy of their 
movements, that the people knew not of their coming until 
they found themselves surrounded. As many of these houses 
lie off from the main roads, and some of them in obscure 
places, the question arises, How did the soldiers know where 
to go ? or who piloted them to their destinations ? 

Let the Republicans of Benton hang their heads with 
shame, whenever these questions are asked ; for each one of 
them knows best to what house he led the way, and well 
knew, also, the object of the search. Li some instances, 
relatives were reported by relatives ; thus fulfilling the Scrip- 
ture — for prophecy, as well as history, often repeats itself — 
" A man's enemies shall be those o'f his own household." 

But the night of fearful apprehension to the inhal)itants 
of those mountain homes was drawing to a close. The gray 
light of the morning began to creep along the eastern hills, 
and day dawned to witness one of the most shameful and 
illegal military exploits ever performed by men calling them 
selves guardians of American liberty. What a libel upoi 
the name of freedom ! What a prostitution of militari 
power ! And what a fearful demonstration of the danger ot 
an, army guided by political opinions, and pushed forward bj 
the force of party spirit ! At the approach of day, the open- 
ing of each door was demanded, and every man, found about 
the premises, was ordered to "fall in," Avithout time, in many 
instances, to prepare for decency or comfort. They were all 
marched to the Benton Church. Amontr the number col- 



INVASION OF COLUMBIA, PENNA. 307 

lected, there were a few whose names were not on the " roll 
of honor." These were dismissed, while the remainder (forty- 
four in number) Avere hurried off" without food, save what 
little was brought to them hastily by their friends. It was a 
sad spectacle, indeed, to the few who were left behind, to see 
this mournful procession as it passed along. Here were the 
aged, whose locks were whitened by the frosts of threescore 
years, some of them tottering, on their feet through illness. 
Here, also, were the able-bodied and the young, the rich and 
the poor, and those who held high places in life, all huddled 
together, surrounded by bayonets, and hurried forward, like 
cattle to the slaughter-pen, or slaves to the galleys. And 
this, in that beautifully secluded valley, where the ripj)ling 
waters dance to the music of freedom, and where the mur- 
mur of the gentle breeze seemed to rebuke the spirit of the 
tyrant. And this, too, in the United States of America — 
the boasted home of the oppressed of all the earth — a nation 
of the freest people on the globe, whose star-spangled banner 
is a respected passport to every harbor in the world, and a 
pledge of protection to everj^ child at home. 

But on move the tyrant's minions, driving forward their 
victims to their filthy destination. Greatly to the disap- 
pointment of the prisoners, instead of stopping at Blooms- 
burg, they were hurried to the cars, and conveyed to Phila- 
delphia, and thence, on the afternoon of the same day, to 
Fort Mifflin. 

One thing, observable on this march, was the unnecessary 
cruelty practised toward them. Some of them were arrested 
and taken from their homes without breakfast, and all of 
them were conveyed the whole distance to Philadelphia, and 
kept until the next da}^, before any food was furnished them. 
In addition to this, they were marched and countermarched 
through the streets of the city, up one street and down 
another, footsore, hungry, some of them sick, and all worn 
out, until old men wept like children, and young men cursed 
the perpetrators of so foul a wrong. 

Fort Mifflin is located on the Delaware River, six miles 



308 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

from Philadelphia. It was built to protect the interests of 
that great city from the invasion of a foreign foe ; but, like 
most of our northern Forts, during the late war, it was pros- 
tituted to the uses of a political prison. Its situation is most 
unhealthy, and its internal arrangements, as a prison, of the 
most shocking character. The particular part of the Fort, 
into which these unoffending citizens of Columbia County 
were thrust, was bombproof 'No. 3, the dimensions of which 
are given in the sworn statement of Mr. "VVm. Appleman, as 
follows : 

" We arrived in Philadelphia at eight or nine o'clock in 
the morning, (September 1,) and were taken to the Barracks 
at Fifth and Buttonwood Streets. Here, at noon, we ob- 
tained something to eat, tincups of soup, and some bread and 
meat, which was the first food furnished us from the time 
of our arrest. At the Benton Church, some eatables were 
sent to us from the house of John J. Stiles, by his direction, 
(he being one of the prisoners,) which was all we had had. 
Myself and sons were taken from home before breakfast. On 
the afternoon of the same day, we were tp.ken to Fort Mifflin, 
and put in bombproof ISTo. 3. This bombproof is partly 
below the level of the river, is arched overhead, and has 
thick walls of stone and brick. By stepping it, we made its 
width to be nineteen feet, and its length fifty-four feet. This 
was the space allotted to the prisoners, forty-four in number. 
One of the original prisoners had been discharged before we 
arrived at the Fort, on the ground that he had been arrested 
by mistake 

" Air and light were imperfectly admitted on one side, and 
at one end of the boml^proof, through openings in the ^'\^a]l, 
perhaps a dozen in number. The main ones may have been 
four inches wide by a foot in height on the outside, widen- 
ing toward the interior. The floor was of hard earth or 
gravel, and firm. On the sides, scantling was laid on the 
ground, lengthwise of the room ; and across these, boards 
were placed. Again, at the ends of the boards next the wall, 
short pieces of scantling or blocks were laid at intervals, end- 



IlSrVASION OF COLUMBIA, PENNA. 309 

wise to the walls, across which boards were placed, forming 
a narrow platform along the walls a few inches high. This 
constituted a substitute for pillows, the lower and wider 
platform answering the purpose of a bed. A single soldier's 
blanket was furnished to each man, but no bedding — not 
even a little straw. The room was very damp and M^et at 
times ; the water came through the arch overhead, from the 
earth upon it, dropping down in the part farthest from the 
fire. To check this dampness, it was necessary to have a 
fire constantly in the grate at one end of the room ; but this 
was not sufficient, although attended night and day. The 
fire was also useful to some extent in procuring ventilation ; 
and from the chilliness of the room it was required for com- 
fort, even in September. 

" Our prison fare was as follows : To each a loaf of baker's 
bread for the day, one slice of boiled pork or beef at noon, 
and a tin of coft'ee morning and night. Sometimes one tin 
of bean or pea soup was substituted at dinner for the slice 
of meat. On three or four occasions, we drew potatoes, boiled 
in the skins, instead of soup, at dinner. Several times the 
meat was not good, and five or six times there was none fur- 
nished. The prisoners, however, purchased provisions for 
themselves, to some extent, at enormous rates. The expense 
incurred in this way was very considerable during the time 
I remained in confinement. Half of a single candle was fur- 
nished at night for the whole room, so we were obliged to 
furnish lights at our own expense. We were supplied with 
a filth-tub, made by sawing a barrel across the middle, and 
standing upright on the closed end. A stick was run across 
it, through holes bored a little way below the top, and thus 
provision was made for its being carried by two men. It had 
no cover. For about three weeks it stood in the gangway or 
entrance passage, outside the door of our prison-room, during 
the day-time. Afterward, upon my application, we were 
permitted to keep it during the day in an empty room ad- 
joining the gangway. Two of the prisoners occasionally 
took it out under guard. Always at night it was necessarily 



310 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

kept in our room, the door being locked. This whole matter 
was a great grievance. 

" The prisoners were mostly over forty years of age, and 
accustomed to active employment, upon whom imprisonment 
hore severely. About the end of September, Wm. E. Rob- 
erts and John Yorks were taken sick with bowel complaints, 
and were removed to the hospital, near the Fort. Roberts 
died about ten days afterward." 

But we will leave the prisoners a while in ,their gloomy 
coll and return to camp. Having made the foregoing arrests, 
the "Army of Fishing Creek" broke camp and proceeded 
np the creek about ten miles, and rested at the foot of the 
mountain. The situation of this encampment, and the object 
of this move, are stated by a correspondent of the " Philadel- 
phia Inquirer," of September 6, 1864, thus : 

" On Friday, we once more took np our line of march, and are 
now in the mountains. Our camp is located in a valley on the 
east branch of Fishing Creek. Mountains are all around us. 
The valley is barely wide enough for our camp, the mountains 
on each side rising almost perpendicularly for over seven hundred 
feet. Of course, I am not aware of the information possessed at 
headquarters; but from all that I can learn, the insurgents are 
encamped in a gorge in the mountains, where they have intrench- 
ments, mounting two field-pieces. They are said to be from three 
to five hundred strong, and from their location, it will be ex- 
tremely difficult to approach them with sufficient numbers to 
overcome their very strong position. It is the prayer of every 
soldier in the command, that they remain and give us fight. We 
hardly have hopes of this from the cowardly course they have 
pursued up to this time. Still they are hemmed in, and may be 
brought to bay. 

"The 'Army of Fishing Creek,' commanded by General Cad- 
walader in person, is spoiling for a fight, and is praying that the 
insurgents will give them an opportunity of achieving something 
Avorthy of their mighty powers, and the labors and expense of 
a thousand men." 

They had obtained one victory, but that was bloodless, as 



INVASION OF COLUMBIA, PENNA. 311 

the correspondent elsewhere remarks: "About one hundred 
men were quietly arrested and brought into camp." But 
here was a chance to show their courage by storming the 
breastworks of nature, made stronger by the arts of a force 
of "insurgents from three to five hundred strono-." 

The report had been extensively circulated, that a large force 
was strongly fortified in the mountains. Some had seen the 
forts, and others had seen the trail where the cannon had been 
dragged up to their positions. The object of this encampment, 
was to find and destroy these fortifications, and scatter and 
break up the " Fishing Creek Confederacy." They reconnoi- 
tred until they supposed they had defined the position of the 
enemy, and then made the necessary arrangements for the 
attack. 

The result of this grand movement is best given in the 
language of John G. Freeze, Esq., of Bloomsburg, in a 
speech at the ISTob Mountain meeting, in August, 1864. He 
said : " I wish I could fairly describe to you General Cad- 
walader's hunt after that 'fort mounting two field-pieces.' 
What trouble he had to get guides and scouts, (there were 
no intelligent contrabands in that country ;) how he sent a 
squad of men after my old friend, James Iless ; how, after a 
midnight ride, he captured a boy, who knew some other boy, 
who knew where the Fort was ; how that boy did n't know, 
but could show them where there was a boy who did ; and 
how, at last, somebody was found who undertook to fix the 
spot. Then the Major-General's scientific knowledge of mili- 
tary matters came into full exercise ; his strategic ability had 
a foeman worthy of his fame ; and his thousand men were 
divided, and located, and timed witli the utmost military 
skill and precision. The grand 'Army of Fishing Creek,' 
in three divisions, advanced against that lonely Fort. After 
clambering for half a day over rocks and stones, through 
briers and huckleberry-bushes, and finding three or four old 
l)ear-traps, which my old friend, John Mcllenry, had set up 
there, they began to find signs of a place where somebody 
bad been ; and then, ' Look to your arms, boys, and keep your 



312 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

powder dr}'.' And so, this valiant army progressed — each 
division coming up in order and at the proper time; when, 
suddenly surrounding the top of the mountain, they captured 
a place where some of your hoys and girls had been having a 
huckleberry picnic ; and that was all they ever did find. No 
Fort, no intrenchments, no rilie-pits, no field-pieces, no five 
liujidred men, no rebellion, and no nothing. That was the 
end of the expedition ; and Cadwalader, like that ancient 
King of Spain, 

'"With twenty tliousaml men, 
IVtarched up tlif liill, aad then marclied down again.' 

"lie was tlioroughly disgusted ; he came to Bloomsburg, 
and, upon his knowledge and experience as a military ofiicer, 
he pronouTU't'd — I use his own words — the whole thing a 
farce. What then should he have done? He had arrested 
about one hundred of our citizens ; he had incarcerated forty- 
four of them in bombproofs at Fort MifHin ; he had satisfied 
liimself, after a thoroiigli search in all directions, that the 
Fort was moonshine, and the rebellion ' a farce ; ' and as an 
honest man, as an ofiicer deserving the name, he should 
have made it a personal matter to procure their release." 

Thus ended this mighty movement to put down the 
"Fishing Creek Rebellion." And, nothing more left f()r 
fhem to do there, they returned down the creek, and en- 
camped on Coleman's farm, above Stillwater. But, they were 
]iot satisfied with their success in this expedition ; if they 
could not find men fortified in the mountains, they could 
find men in their unfortified homes. They, therefore, made 
several other arresfs of citizens of Sugar-Loaf township, but, 
for some reason, soon released them. 

The itiost important arrest that the}^ made, at this time, 
was that of Rev. A. R. Rutan, of Fairmoiint, Luzerne 
County. We here give, in his own words, a statement from 
Mr. Rutan : ^ 

" I was born in I^ew Jersey, and, when nineteen years old, 
came to Luzerne County, in this State, where I now reside. 
1 have tried to preach the Gospel of peace for twenty years, 



INVASION OF COLUMBIA, PENNA. 313 

and I have always tried to practise what I preached, and to 
be a law-abiding citizen. But to my great surprise, on the 
31st of August, 1864, three soldiers came to my house and 
arrested me. They said. Colonel Steward wished to see me 
at Benton, to make some inquiries of me about things 
around there ; and they said I must go — their orders were to 
arrest me, and bring me without delay. I was taken to 
Benton that nigbt, about ten o'clock. I was then permitted 
to go where I pleased, until the next day, about one o'clock, 
when I was put under arrest until dark. Tlien, I went with 
Colonel Steward to see General Cadwalader, and was released 
on a verbal parole of honor, that I would give bail to appear 
at court when called for. I went home and remained there 
until the evening before the October election, when six 
drunken soldiers came to my residence, at a late hour of the 
night, and commanded me to open my door, or they would 
break it open. I opened the door. They came roughly in, 
and said they had come to arrest me, and that I must go 
immediately with them. I asked for their authority, but 
they gave me no satisfaction. They compelled J. "VV. Steel 
to drive my team to camp. I was taken to the camp near 
Coleman's — was kept there two nights, sleeping on the 
ground. I was then taken to Bloomsburg, and was there 
one night and one day, and permitted to go where I pleased, 
without a guard. I spent the most of that day at C. S. 
Fisher's. I was then taken to Ilarrisburg, before Judge 
Advocate Wessels, and from him received another verbal 
parole, by promising to tell what I knew about a meeting 
near Benton, when Mr. Iladley preached. Mr. Wessels 
wished me to write what I knew of this meeting, and I 
agreed to Avrite ; but before I had written, SamuelJ. Pealer 
came to see me, and made arrangements with me to clear me 
from all further trouble with the military, or the Govern- 
ment, as he called it. I was to give him sixty-five dollar^s, a 
Devonshire heifer, and a fine dog, which he said would clear 
me of all, and there would be no more arrests made on me, 
and there would be no soldiers troubling my family by 



314 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

coming after me. But in less tlian one week, three soldiers 
came in the night, ordered me to open the door, and said I 
was their prisoner. I was again taken to Ilarrisljurg, where 
I was interrogated about the disloyalty, of diiferent men, of 
whom I knew nothing wrong. I was kept in prison until 
about the last of IS'ovember, when I had some kind of a trial. 
About four weeks after my trial I was taken to Fort Mifflin, 
and confined there until March 1, 18G5. During my im- 
prisonment, my family had to suffer many deprivations. I 
lost nearly all my crops. My loss was not less than six hun- 
dred dollars, besides all the suifering of my family and 
myself." 

Such is the modest statement of this respected clergyman. 
And, however humble his position as such, it shows, that 
no class was free from the cruel grasp of military power. 
"While the farmer was dragged from his plough, the mechanic 
from his shop, and the merchant from his counter, the 
minister of the Gospel of peace, also, was torn from his 
family, and the flocks of his charge, and thrust into a filthy 
prison, for daring to speak in opposition to the reign of 
terror. 

After the prisoners had been taken away, there was scarcely 
a man left at home: they either fled from the neighborhood, 
or kept out of tiie way in the daytime, and slept in the woods 
at night. Old men of more than threescore years, who had 
ever been good and peaceful citizens, and had labored hard 
to secure homes for their old days, were not willing to lie 
down upon their own beds in their own houses, for fear they 
would be gobbled up by these military cormorants. 

Let us now return to Fort Mifflin, and look in upon the 
prisoners. Shut up for days together in that dark, damp 
place, with its foul air and stinking water, with its scanty 
and sometimes unwholesome fiire, is it surprising that the 
health of many began to fail ? Some of them became so 
dangerously ill, that it was necessary to remove them to the 
hospital. Among these was William E. Roberts, who never 
returned — he died on the sixth day of October, 1864. His 



INVASION OF COLUMBIA, PENNA. 315 

friends were permitted to take charge of the body, and convey 
it to his home. He lies in the cemetery in Jackson Town- 
ship, near the Union Church ; and his grave will be long 
pointed out as that of one of whom it may be truthfully said, 
" They have murdered him." 

"Sleep on, old friend, thy sleep is dreamless, 
No midnight raids disturb thee now ; 
To thee the Tyrant's shafts are aimless, 
He 's struck his last, though fatal blow. 

While guided by some "loyal" minion. 

They reached thy distant cabin door ; 
And for thine honest heart's opinion, 

Thee from thy wife and childreu tore. 

With tottering steps we saw thee going. 

And marked thy walking in the row ; 
Thine aged form 't was easy knowing, 

Thy locks and beard like fleecy snow. 

With cruel haste they urged thee onward, 

Yes, onward to the filthy goal ; 
From which thy friends soon carried homeward 

Tiiy body emptied of its soul. 

Though gone, the patriot heart will cherish 

Each recollectioQ of thy name ; 
And from the record shall not perish, 

For thou shall have historic fame. 

We leave tlice in thy silent slumber ; 

Our feeble pen can do no more 
Than mention thee among the number. 

The murdered of the forty-four." 

Some of the prisoners were released after several weeks' 
confinement, without any trial, or without knowing why 
they had been arrested. But few of them w^ere ever tried ; 
and of the whole number arrested, but seven were con- 
victed, and they by a military commission, on testimony that 
would not have been received in a court of justice. Of the 
seven men convicted, one paid his fine, one was pardoned by 
President Lincoln, and five by President Johnson. 



;i6 



AMERICAN BASTILE. 



List of Prisoners. 
The following is a list of the names, ages at time of arrest, 
occupation, and length of incarceration of those arrested, 
so far as can be obtained : 











Detained. 


No. 


Name. 


Age. 


Occupation. 






Mo. 


Days. 


1 


Daniel McHenry, 


37 


Farmer, March., Co. Tr., 


4 




2 


Elias (i. Mclienry, 


33 


" 


2 


9 


3 


Joseph Coleman,* 


68 


«' 


1 


19 


4 


Matliias Kline, 


52 


" 


1 


23 


5 


Abraham Kline, 




" 


1 


23 


6 


Samuel Coleman, 


45 


" 


1 


23 


7 


Josiah Coleman, 


41 


<t 




15 


8 


Charles Coleman, 


26 


ii 


1 


23 


9 


John Lemons, 


35 


" and Painter, 


8 


11 


10 


Silas Benjamin, 


31 


Carpenter, 


1 


23 


11 


Samuel Appleman, 


46 


Farmer, 


1 


23 


12 


William Appleman, 


51 


" and Lumberman, 


2 


22 


]:5 


Reuben Ajipleman, 


25 


" 


1 


22 


li 


Thomas Appleman, 


22 


" 


1 


23 


15 


James McHenry, 


44 


Merchant, 


3 


11 


16 


Dyer L. Chapin, 


44 


" 


4 


2 


17 


Elias McHenry, 


47 


Farmer, 


1 


19 


18 


Samuel Kline, 










19 


John llantz, 


60 


<< 


8 


11 


20 


William E. Roberts,| 


57 


Carpenter, 






21 


John Yorks, 


57 


Farmer, 






22 


Henry Hurliman, 


46 


" 


4 


9 


2;5 


George Hurliman, 


48 


-f " 


4 


8 


24 


John G. Stiles, 


39 


Innkeeper, 


4 




25 


Hiram ¥. Everett, 


33 


Merchant, 


4 




26 


Scott E. CoUey, 


62 


Farmer, 


4 




27 


Benjamin CoUey, 


37 




8 


11 


28 


Joseph Vansickle, 




[County, 






29 


Rohr McHenry, 


36 


Farmer, Distiller, Com. of 


2 




80 


John Karns, 


59 


" 


1 


23 


31 


John C. Karns, J 


23 


" 


1 


23 


32 


Montgomery Cole, 


40 


" 


1 


23 


33 


Russel McHenry, 


26 


«' 


4 


5 


34 


James Evans, 


54 


" 


1 


23 


35 


Jonathan Steel, 




" 






36 


Henry J. Hurliman, 


21 


Carpenter, 


1 


19 


37 


William Hurliman, 


19 


Farmer, 


1 


23 


38 


Valentine Fell, 


49 


Blacksmith, ■ 


8 


11 


39 


John 11. Davis, ^ 


58 


Farmer, 


1 


23 


40 


Arwillis Davis, || 


20 


Carpenter 


5 


3 


41 


Samuel iSIc Henry, 


57 


Farmer,^ 


4 


17 


42 


M. D. Appleman, 


26 


Wheelwright, 


1 


23 


43 


John Baker, 


44 


" and Farmer, 


1 


23 


44 


Abraham Hartman, 


29 


Farmer, 


4 


4 



* Was a soldier of the War of 1812. f Died at the Fort. 

J Had been in the service nine months. | Sick when arrested. 

II Drafted while in the West, and knew nothing of it until he returned home. 



r. S. READER. 

THIS gentleman, the victim of abused power, was of 
Macoupin County, in the State of Illinois, where he 
resided to within a few months of his decease, which took 
place in Texas. 

He was, by occupation, a farmer, and, by industry and 
economy, had accumulated considerable property. Having a 
taste for mechanics, he built the first mill in that section of 
the country, and continued, throughout life, to hold an in- 
terest in it. Shortly after his settlement in Macoupin County, 
he was elected Justice of the Peace, which office he retained 
for twelve years. He was known as an affable gentleman 
and a liberal-minded man, who took great interest in the 
educational and charitable institutions of his county and 
State, and to which he contributed liberally. 

Condemning as pernicious to the interests of the country 
the doctrines advocated by the Republican party, and as bit- 
terly averse to the secession movement, then about taking 
place in the Southern States, he strenuously urged compro- 
mise measures for healing the breach between the JSTorth and 
South ; although, when the tocsin of war was sounded in 
1861, he freely gave his sympathies to the Union cause, and 
liberally extended his assistance in tlie raising of volunteers 
for the defence of the Government. 

In 1862, the young men of Chesterfield, irrespective of 
party, incited by the pomp and parade of war, undertook the 
formation of a Home Guard, to which Mr. Reader became 
attached, and gave them, in their organization, the benefit 
of his former training and experience, acquired in the Illinois 
militia. 

From his connection with this organization, a rumor was 

317 



318 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

circulated that he intended joining the Confederate Army, 
with from eight hundred to a thousand men, whom he was 
then arming and equipping ; and that a Confederate flag had 
been raised in his yard. Knowing that these reports were 
promulgated by his enemies, for the gratification of malice, 
Mr. Reader deemed them of too flimsy a nature to demand 
attention, and passed them by unnoticed. At no time were 
there over fifty men in arms for drill, parade, or any other 
purpose ; while the Stars and Stripes were floating from a 
staff erected on his premises, and had been for months pre- 
viously. He frequently attended, and spoke at the war meet- 
ings, and at one of them opposed the enlisting of boys of 
such tender years as to be unable to bear the fatigue incident 
to a soldier's life, and as only calculated to impede the army, 
and fill the hospitals. This, together with his oft-expressed 
desire for the closing of the fratricidal war by compromise, 
was quickly construed into opposition to the enlistment of 
volunteers ; although in the course of the same remarks he 
had expressed sympathy and encouragement for the troops 
then in the field. 

We have given a somewhat extended synopsis of Mr. Rea- 
der's political actions, which, together with the fact, that he 
afterward received no trial, when in the hands of the Govern- 
ment, will enable the impartial reader to judge of the cause 
of his arrest, which took place before sunrise on the morning 
of August 12, 1862. 

He was called from his chaml)cr, and afterward enticed 
from his house, on pretence of meeting a young captain of 
volunteers, to whom he had promised assistance in recruit- 
ing troops. Having no idea of arrest, he went out to meet 
him, and was immediately surrounded by a body of armed 
men, and arrested without a warrant or other legal author- 
ity, by the United States Deputy Marshal, who simply said, 
" You are my prisoner, sir, and must accompany me to 
Springfield, by order of the United States Marshal." 

Being undressed at the time, he was permitted, under 
guard, to enter his house and put on the first old coat and 



p. S. READER. 319 

hat tliat he could lay his hands on, and these, together with 
a pair of shoes, formed his attire. He was then hurried 
away, without l)eing allowed time to comfort his weeping 
family. Fearful of a rescue from his indignant friends, when 
they should hear of his arrest, his captors removed him 
swiftly away to Carlinville, and thence conveyed him to 
'' Camp Butler," near Springfield, on the Sangamon River. 
Arriving there, he was placed in a filthy harrack, and neither 
j^ermitted to have communication with his family or friends, 
nor to receive any money or clothing from them. A gentle- 
man who was acrpiainted with him, while on a visit to the 
camp, to see a friend, met him clandestinely and communi- 
cated his situation to his family, who, thereupon, sent him 
money and some necessary articles of clothing, which were 
committed to the care of an officer, and never after heard of. 
The commandant of the post said, upon application being 
made to him for their restoration, " that he would make no 
inquiry concerning them," which assertion was carried out 
literally, as they were never recovered. 

While confined at "Camp Butler," a petition, praying for 
his release from custody on taking the oath of allegiance to 
the United States, and signed by over a hundred of his 
friends and neighbors, was presented to Governor Yates, who 
refused to take cognizance of the case, averring that it was 
a matter appertaining to the General Government. 

The prisoner, after remaining a fortnight at "Camp But- 
ler," was then, together with nine other political prisoners 
from the southern part of the State, removed to Washing- 
ton under heavy guard, with threats of being handcuffed in 
case an attempt at escape was made. 

Arriving in that city, he, with some state prisoners from 
Virginia, was confined in tlie " Old Capitol," receiving an 
assurance, that he would be granted a trial at some future 
day. 

Prohibited from receiving any letters, or holding any com- 
munication with hi^ family, he suffered much mental anguish. 
At this juncture his friends, of both political parties, entered 



320 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

into a l)ail-l)Oii(l of fifty tliousiuul dollarH, wLicli was trans- 
mitted to Wasliington, where it lay for a short time, no 
notice havhig heen taken of it, until after tlie defeat of Gene- 
ral Pope, and the reinstating of General McClellan in com- 
mand of the Army of the Potomac. 

Mr. lieader was then called to the Judge Advocate's oflice, 
and required to sign the hond, when he was released, after 
being incarcerated for eight weeks. Eeing without means, 
he was furnished with a ])ass to Springfield, Illinois. Arriv- 
ing there, and feeling keenly the injustice of liis own im- 
prisonment, and being satisfied of the innocence of liis fellow- 
prisoners, he made an ap})eal, in their behalf, to Major-Gene- 
ral John J, McCleniand, from whom he elicited the response 
that, " Such men as yourself^ and Judge Allen, deserve to be hung, 
and you loill he, too, soon, if you are not careful.^' Eeing ex- 
tremely sensitive, lie was discouraged and disheartened ; and 
feeling that "scorn's slow, unmoving finger" pointed toward 
him, lie returned to the bosom of his family, and there, in 
quiet and seclusion, sought a balm for his wounded spirit; 
steadfastly refusing to take any part in politics, although 
earnestly solicited to do so by liis numerous friends. 

In 1867, he was attacked with infiammatory rheumatism 
and scrofula, diseases from wliich he liad previously suii'ered, 
but which had evidently been aggravated by his confinement. 
]Ie started for Texas for tlie benefit of his health, which liad, 
upon a previous occasion, been much improved by tliat cli- 
mate. 7\s he was getting ready to return home, he- was 
seized with a severe attack of typhoid pneumonia, and soon 
found a grave, "a stranger in a strange land." He had 
neither friends nor relatives near him, to minister to his com- 
fort, mitigate liis sufi'erings, or proii'er him the solace of ro- 
liiiion. 

o 

"Earth serenely now may give lier calm 
To wlioni she gave her anguiah." 



THE OLD CAPITOL PRISOX; 
Its History and Incidents. 

THE buildings known as the Old Capitol, but now de- 
molished, were not erected at one time. The Old Capital 
proj)er, included only the building fronting on First Street ; 
that on A Street adjoining, and forming a part of the prison, 
was built subsequently. 

The Old Capitol Prison, situated on the corner of A and 
First Streets, Washington, was an old and dilapidated brick 
l)ui]ding, which was erected in 1817, to accommodate the 
National Legislature, the Capitol building having l)een de- 
stroyed by fire. It was used for that purpose until the Cap- 
itol was rebuilt, when the additions and alterations were 
made, and it was fitted up for a boarding-house, and as such, 
was, for many years, patronized by members of Congress 
and others, who visited the city during the sessions of Con- 
gress, and whose daily attendance on the Legislative halls 
made a contiguous dwelling desirable. It was in this build- 
ing that the Hon. John C. Calhoun breathed his last. And 
little did this revered champion of liberty, or his compeers, 
who legislated within its walls, or reposed beneath its roof, 
think that the day would come, when this building, within 
sight of the Capitol of the Nation, whose dome is sur- 
mounted by the Goddess of Liberty, would be turned into a 
l)astile and dungeon for the victims of despotism. 

The building forms two sides of a square. The entrance 
on^ First Street is under a large arched window, which 
admitted light to the former Senate Chamber, but which, 
through its broken and filthy panes, permitted the winter's 
wind and drifting snow to fall on the unhappy inmates of 
21 321 



322 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the " infamous " room iSTo. 16. On entering the building 
from First Street, a large liall or passage-way presents itself. 
This was used as an anteroom, or iounging-place for the 
soldiers who formed a part of the military guard of the 
prison. On the right, there were two rooms which were 
used as offices, into which the prisoners were taken on their 
arrival, questioned, and searched by one or more officers of 
the guard. In the discharge of this and kindred duties, 
Lieutenant Miller, of the 10th ISTew Jersey Volunteers, made 
himself so unenviably notorious and tyrannically officious, as 
to merit and call forth the unanimous execrations of every 
inmate of the prison, as well as the officers, guards, and 
negro attendants, and for which he was promoted to the 
office of Chief Jailer of the adjoining Bastile, called " Duff 
Green's Row." The innermost of these offices opens into a 
hall, on Avhich there was one room for prisoners, which was 
about twenty feet square, containing a number of bunks or 
sleeping berths, like those used on canal-boats, but having 
three berths, one above another. These berths were about three 
feet wide o^nd six feet long, and, from constant use and want 
of cleaning, were literally alive with bedbugs and other ver- 
min. Indeed, this but faintly describes the condition of 
every room in the building at that time ; and the weary 
hours of the inmates were often industriously employed in 
the disgusting occupation of killing vermin. 

From this hall, the principal stairwaj^ ascends ; and at the 
end of, and opposite to, the first flight of stairs was room No. 
19, for some time used as the private office of the Superin- 
tendent. Not a few of our readers will call to mind their 
visits to tiiis inquisitorial chamber, for it was there that 
Detective Baker and Superintendent Wm. P. Wood held^ 
tlieir interviews with their innocent victims, and tortured 
their harmless, though often fearless, expressions into evi- 
dence against them ! and, in hundreds of cases, this was tjie 
only evidence they possessed, with which they hoped to 
criminate or intimidate them into tacitly submitting to the 
terms of extortion proposed as a condition of their release. 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 323 

Following np the stairs from this room brought you to the 
principal floor of the building, which was once used by the 
Senate and House of Representatives, but, latterly, was 
divided into five large rooms, numbered, respectively, from 
14 to 18, of which room ISTo. 16 was the centre and largest. 
These rooms strongly resembled the one already described, 
being fitted with similar bunks, filled with filth of every 
imaginable kind, and entirely destitute of any furniture or 
other accommodations indispensable to the humblest cabin. 
These rooms, which usually contained from eighteen to 
twenty-five prisoners in each, were less than thirty feet 
square ; and, with the accumulation of filth, the inevitable 
consequence of overcrowding and neglect of cleanliness, pre- 
sented a condition that can better be imagined than described. 

The hall or vestibule in front of these rooms, and from 
which they all ope*ii, was continually paced by a sentry, Avhose 
duty it was not to allow more than two of the prisoners, at 
a time, to leave their rooms for the purpose of obeying na- 
ture's calls, and on their doing so, to shout to the sentry on 
the next landing, that " All is right, ISTo. 6," that being the 
number of the post. Each sentry had a number to his post, 
and one was stationed on every landing in the building, so 
that the new comer to that terrible dungeon, in consequence 
of the continued calls of the sentries, the clanking of their 
arms, and the changing of the guard once in every two hours, 
had but little hope of becoming oblivious to his sorrows, or 
forgetful of his wrongs, in sleep. 

Rooms No. 14, 15, and 18 were usually filled with citizens 
of Virginia — farmers living within the Federal lines. And 
many of these were gentlemen of the highest respectabilit}^ 
education, and patriotism ; some found themselves inmates 
because they owned a fine horse coveted by some shoulder- 
strapped upstart ; and others had refused to swear allegiance 
to a Government that was then totally powerless to protect 
their persons or property. Room 'No. 17 was filled with of- 
ficers of the Federal service, many of v/hom were ignorant of 
the cause of their arrest, and some were sent there because 



324 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Provost Marshal Doster wished to coerce them into compli- 
ance with his mandates, and who proposed to release them on 
their sending in an unconditional resignation of their posi- 
tions. In this room was confined a Lieutenant IMcCl'r^o, of 
the 135th Pennsjlvania Volunteers, whose oft'ence c^ . i^-^ed 
in saying he disapproved President Lincoln's Emanc aion 
Proclamation. For this grave and heinous crime he ^ -.is in- 
carcerated four months, without a trial ; and finally, when 
tried, the Colonel (Porter) of his regiment, who desired the 
position for a friend, was made president of the court-mar; ial. 
The result, as might be expected, was finding him guilty, 
and sentencing him to dismissal from the service, and impri- 
sonment, during the vxir^ at the Dry Tortugas. 

Adjoining this was room ISTo. 16, famous alike for having 
been the quarters of the Western prisoners and for liaving 
contained the leading spirits of the prison. This room, like 
the others, contained twenty-one bunks, but few of wdiich, 
however, could be used by the occupants, as they were thickly 
infested by vermin. Here, at different periods, were co-.ifined 
men from almost every State of the Union — honorable repre- 
sentatives of the learned professions, merchants of the high- 
est character and standing; and in fact, some from nearly all 
the walks of life. 

The reader, to form a correct idea of the mess-room, No. 
16, must imagine he sees before him a large and desolate- 
looking apartment, with one large window at the end, 
opposite to that from which he enters. In the centre, a 
large dirty cylinder stove. Around the room, and against 
its dirty walls, the whitewash, on which was discolored with 
age, and festooned with spiders' w^ebs, were distributed the 
bunks already mentioned, and in addition, three or four iron 
bedsteads — these bunks, at times, filled with boxes, b'ags, 
valises, pots, pans, newspapers, pipes, cigars, old playing 
cards, empty bottles, and one or more of every garment of 
men's wear, indiscriminately packed together in chaotic con 
fusion, with the debris of the last meal, and the -materials 
for the next. Sitting on chairs, benches, and impromptu 



OJjT> CAPITOL PEISOIN^. 325 

contrivances for seats, around two dirty pine-tables, each 
about five feet long, were twelve or fourteen gentlemen, 
whose ages ranged from twenty to fifty. These formed the 
mess of the room, and were diligently discussing a ham-bone, 
or a piece of commissary beef, which, from its quality, was 
coramonl}'- denominated "mule." 

When the reader reflects that these gentlemen were kid- 
napped from their homes, where they were always surrounded 
with the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, and for no 
earthly reason immured in that filthy prison-pen, destitute 
of every comfort, cut off from all correspondence with their 
families or friends, and denied the well-known rights of any 
accused person, he will cease to wonder at the wrecks of 
mind and body produced by their incarceration. Scattered 
around the room in every imaginable attitude, or crowding 
to the window to see the latest arrival, whom, within an 
hour, they would greet as a fellow-prisoner and sharer of 
their privations, are seen the other occupants of the room. 
Suddenly, the shout of " Fresh fish" is raised, when all rush 
eagerly to the window to witness the arrival, under escort 
of one or more detectives, of the last victim of military 
necessity. Or it may be, that the call is, " A sympathizer," 
when with equal avidity the prisoners would press forward 
to salute, or return the friendly but furtive greeting of some 
one of the many ladies of Washington, whose noble hearts, 
touched with sympathy at their sufterings, daily passed the 
prison to give them a cheering and kind look, w^hich, though 
harmless, often involved them in difficulty; for scarcely a 
day passed that the sentry did not, under orders of Lieutenant 
]Miller, or some other aspirant for Administration favor and 
promotion, arrest, on the sidewalk, or in carriages, ladies 
and gentlemen who dared to recognize, by look or salutation, 
a relative or a friend, who had the misfortune of incurring 
the displeasure of the War Department. 

These arrests were of daily, and sometimes, hourly occur- 
rence, and many ladies of the highest respectability have been 
dragged from their carriages for saluting a relative at the 



826 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

window of this prison, taken into tlie office, and for hours, 
subjected to the insulting familiarity and impudent question- 
ing of these uniformed plebeians, who were paid and pampered 
for the protection of these women whom thej thus outraged. 
Xor was that the only consequence of a friendly look or 
word ; for if the prisoner receiving or returning it could be 
discovered, he was at once locked up in a dark, dirty, narrow 
hole, which was dignitied with the name of guard-house, 
where he was closely confined without food or bed, until the 
wrath of the oilicial was appeased by some fellow-prisoner, or 
by the soothing influence of a consideration. And those dis- 
coveries were not infrequent ; for the AVar Department secured 
daily reports of all the movements and conversations of the 
prisoners, by placing a spy in each room, who, though osten- 
sibly a prisoner, was the paid informer of the officials. We 
will mention one marked instance of the kind which occurred 
in room No. 16. A fellow named Corbett, acting in that capa- 
city, wrote daily reports to Detective Baker, one of which 
descriljed the indignant denunciation by a prisoner of the 
corruption of this official, for which Baker had him placed 
in solitary coniinemeut. 

During the half-hour allowed for recreation to the occu- 
pants of the large room in the yard of the prison, the spies, 
assuming the air and bearing of injured victims, mingled 
freely with the prisoners, and obtained their confidence, with 
the intention of betraying it. 

Ascending a short flight of rickety stairs, from the floor 
on which these large rooms were situated, you arrive at room 
jSTo. 18, on the third floor, which forms a part of the addi- 
tion to the Old Capitol proper. It was by rough measure- 
ment eight feet wide by fourteen feet long, from the door to 
the window facing the street opposite. The floor proper 
extended over only about ten feet of the length of the room ; 
a raised sort of })latform occupied the remainder of the space. 
This platform extended across the width of the room, and 
was elevated to a level with the bottom of the window facing 
north. The furniture of this room consisted of a small table 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 327 

and two chairs, winch had been purchased by some of tho 
first occupants of the room, and left there when they were 
discharged. Beside these, there were two bunks for sleeping, 
each one having a place for two occupants, canal-boat fashion. 
These bunks were furnished with a tick each, having in them 
but a scanty quantity of old straw, which had done service 
ever since the place had been used as a prison, ICach berth 
was also furnished with a dirty quilt, and beside these, there 
were two small blankets in like condition, which did service 
for the occupants of this room by turn. For pillows, a board 
had been mortised into the head ends of the berths. This 
room, witi four others of unequal size, but of equally filthy 
condition, opening on a corridor, was at times devoted to 
prisoners kept in solitary confinement, and cut oti from all 
conversation or privilege of recreation. 

It was in a room on the second floor of this part of the prison 
that Jewell-known Belle Boyd was confined; and the list of the 
names of the occupants written on the walls vied in length 
and respectability with the registers of our largest and best 
hotels. These rooms were in the wing of the building on A 
Street, and from the windows of some of them could be seen 
the railroad depot, Camp Sprague, (afterward used as a hos- 
pital,) and the negro village with the euphonious name of 
Swamppoodle. The barred casements of the rooms were 
constantly lined with the pallid and anxious faces of the 
inmates, who gazed with envy on the contrabands enjoying 
that liberty of which they were so unjustly deprived. That 
portion of the building which contained the rooms was, as 
before stated, used for prisoners kept in close confinement, 
who never breathed the fresh air of heaven but once a 
day, when they were allowed, under escort of a corporal, to 
visit the sink. 

On the lower floor of this building, which was reached by 
a dilapidated and dangerous stairway used by the prisoners, 
(none of them being allowed to use the principal stairw^ay, 
which was reserved for the officers, guards, and negroes,) 
were two rooms, one of them running the entire width of 



328 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the building. In this room tlie Confederate prisoners of 
war were confined, but from whicli they were removed, in 
the coldest part of December, 18t)2, to an out-house. This 
change was made to accommodate the negro washerwomen, 
who were by far the most important of the prison inmates. 
From this floor the visitor passed to the prison-yard, about 
one hundred feet square, one-half of which was paved with 
bricks or round stones ; the remainder was (in wet weather) 
a quagmire. 

It was here, during the summer months, that five large Sib- 
Icy tents were erected, in which, and .on the brick pavement, 
several hundred prisoners of war were huddled together, 
night and day, for many weeks. 

In a line with that portion of the prison last described, 
there extended a two-storied wooden building, the upper part 
of which was used for a hospital, wdth its steward's rooms 
and apothecary shop. The approach to it was by a flight of 
steps outside of the building, at the foot of which stood a 
sentry, to prevent intrusion by any but the favored few who 
had succeeded in getting a whiskey pass from the Superin- 
tendent. 

This w^as obtained by first procuring from the Surgeon in 
charge a written permit to purchase and keep in the hospital 
liquor for the l)earer"s use, which, on being countersigned by 
the Superintendent, allowed the fortunate possessor to open 
negotiations wntli Corporal Brown, the sutler or commissary 
of the prison, for the purchase of w'hiske}'- ; and as Corporal 
Brown set an exalted estimate on his time, and said, "He 
never bought any but the best," the liquor, including the 
sample taken out of it in the olfice for examination as to its 
quality by the guard, who, having the health and w-elfare of 
the prisoners at heart, jealously scrutinized w^h ate ver they 
purchased for consumption, cost more than Imperial Tokay 
by the time h reached the owmer. 

The hospital accommodations were, with some exceptions, 
as good as could be expected in a place conducted without 
regard to system, unless it was a system of plundering the 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 329 

unfortunate prisoners, wliicli was done in a hundred diiFerent 
ways. Conspicuous among them was the sale to the prisoners 
of certain articles, such as tobacco, cigars, matches, station- 
ery, pies, cakes, bread, cheese, and other edibles, all of them 
of the poorest quality, but for which a profit of five hundred 
jDcr cent, was charged by Corporal Brown or his partner, who 
held this lucrative, if not dignified, oflBce by virtue of his 
being a nephew of the Superintendent. The only opportunity 
alforded to make the purchases was during recreation, when 
the space in front of the sutler's shop was crowded with the 
eager throng, cash in hand, which they were glad, from neces- 
sity, to exchange for the miserable rubbish peddled to them 
at ten times its value ; and, in addition, to submit to the im- 
pertinent and obscene familiarity of a vulgar pujipy, who 
presumed on his relationship to the Superintendent to take 
advantage of the peculiar position of the prisoners. The 
scenes of daily occurrence, in front of this swindling shop, 
were often decidedly racy. 

The friendly badinage of some of the prisoners as 
they called out their wants, (for an armed sentry prevented 
their approaching within several yards of the door,) was 
highly amusing, often witty, and but seldom personal, as the 
quality of the articles, the enormity of the charges, and the 
childish tyranny of the ever-changing prison rules, formed 
fruitful topics for the exercise of their wit and repartee, 
while many of the prisoners were thus engaged. If the 
weather permitted, others were vieing in exhibitions of 
strength or agility, or seeking exercise for their limbs, 
weary with the confinement, by repeated marchings around 
the narrow limits of the yard. To those varied modes of 
passing the coveted half-hour for recreation, sudden stop 
would be put by a sergeant calling out, "Time is up: 
repair to your rooms;" when they would again return to 
inhale the fetid and unwholesome atmosphere of their over- 
crowded apartments. 

Adjoining the sutler's shop, and nearer the hospital, was 
the mess-room of the prison, for the use of those who had 



330 ATiIERICAN BASTILE. 

not the means or tlie privilege of procuring their own food. 
It was a long, dimly-lighted room, with a pine bench running 
its whole width and around its walls, on which, at meal hours, 
the prisoners' food, consisting of half-boiled beans, musty 
rice, and pork or beef in a state of semi-putrefaction, was 
thrown in heaps, from which they helped themselves, with- 
out knife, fork, or plate. The accumulated filth and grease, 
on the floor and table, sent forth such an odor, that many, 
nay, most of them, on snatching a piece of meat in one hand, 
and bread in the other, were ol)liged to go into the open air 
to eat them. The total disregard of cleanliness in this hog- 
pen, and the fetid eiiluvia from the half-cooked and decom- 
posing food, together with its proximity to the hospital, 
must have caused or hastened the many deaths that occurred 
there. Opposite to this, and extending to the gate, was a 
stone building, one story high, which contained the cook- 
house, wash-rooms, and the guard-house, already described. 

Behind this building, and at the west of the wood-shed, 
the sinks were situated ; and consisted of wide trenches, 
partially covered over, but open in front, with long, wooden 
rails, on which the eighteen or twenty persons, using them, 
were obliged to stand. The accumulated excrement — for 
months, of several hundred men, many of whom were suf 
fering from diseases of the intestines, produced by. these 
sinks — sent forth an offensive eilluvium that poisoned the 
atmosphere of the whole prison, and disgusted the sickened 
senses of its inmates. In front of the cook-house, and on the 
west side of the yard, a wooden fence was placed, to divide 
it from that portion designed for the use of the guards. At 
the end of this fence were two other sinks, ditiering from 
those described only by being enclosed. These were reserved 
for the oflicials, and a favored few who were admitted l)y 
card, which was closely scrutinized by the sentry in front 
of them. And any person who approached them was ordered 
to halt and show his ticket, without which none could enter 
either of those reserved, though equally loathsome, premises. 
The negroes had, also, for their use, covered sinks ; as in this, 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON". 331 

SO in every other particular, tlieir comfort was considered of 
vastly more importance tlian that of the prisoners. 

Eunning along the southern side of the yard, a two-story 
wooden huilding was erected to accommodate, or rather con- 
tain, a portion of the Confederate prisoners. Its interior, for 
want of cleanliness and light, heggars description. Adjoin- 
ing it was the gate oj)ening into an allej^-way, at which 
were continually congregated a herd of hungry swine, wait- 
ing for the slush that oozed from the prison yard, the daily 
offal of several hundred men. 

In December, 1862, the President ordered the execution of 
a soldier in the prison yard. The gallows was erected in 
front of the Confederate quarters last mentioned, and as vis- 
itors were expected, the entire prison received the long- 
needed cleansing and whitewashing. For several weeks after 
the execution, the revolting instrument of death was left 
standing in the yard — as it was said, to he a terror to the 
prisoners. After the elections in jSTovemher, 1862,. the num- 
ber of arbitrary arrests having greatly diminished, the con- 
dition of the prison became somewhat improved. This de- 
scription is literally true in every respect ; and in no other 
city or country would such a nuisance have been tolerated, 
or allowed to pollute the atmosphere by its existence. 

On the same street, in the adjoining block, a row of houses, 
known as " Duff Green's Row," was also used as a prison, for 
the incarceration of prisoners of state. Its condition and 
management were so like the Old Capitol as to render unne- 
cessary a detailed description of it. 

On the arrival of a prisoner at the door, his presence was 
announced by the sentinel who was patrolling the pavement 
in front of the building. He called out, " Corporal of the 
guard, ISTo. 1." The corporal would shortly make his appear- 
ance and take him in charge. He was then pushed into the 
prison, and within its doors he would find several dirty-look- 
ing soldiers lounging around, a true type of the establish- 
ment that was to be his abode for some weeks, probably 
months. He was likely to be kept in the anteroom for some 



332 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

time, if there should be a visitor in the inner room, and then 
he would be ushered into the august presence of Lieutenant 
Holmes, who was known in the prison by the sohrUjuet of 
" Bullhead," and must undergo an examination of baggage 
and person, and be duly registered. 

This officer, like many other civilians who never before 
had any authority over their fellow-men, arrogated to him- 
self all the power, as well as authority, which he dared exer- 
cise with impunity, over the defenceless victim intrusted to 
his guardian care. After reading the commitment from the 
orderly, who had brought it from the office of the Military 
Governor, Lieutenant Holmes would proceed to inquire of 
the prisoner whether he had arms, liquors, or other contra- 
band goods ; and if the reply was satisfactory, he was passed 
to some one of the rooms of the building that the lieutenant 
might designate as a proper receptacle for his person. If 
the reply was unsatisfactory, he would thrust his hand into 
the valise, or package, as the case might be, and if any- 
thing contraband was found, he would appropriate it to 
himself, as was the rule at Washington. 

Wishing to visit a friend confined in the Old Capitol, the 
visitor had first to obtain a pass, and then, on presenting 
himself at the door, he would be halted by the sentinel, who 
would call lustily for the corporal of the guard. The corpo- 
ral, on making his appearance with his musket at his shoulder, 
would conduct him into the august presence of the sergeant 
of the guard. The sergeant would seize his musket and 
enter an inner room to announce his presence to the lieuten- 
ant. If that dignitary were disengaged, he would permit the 
visitor to enter, and the sergeant would announce that per- 
mission accordingly. As there was only one reception-room 
for the visitors of all the prisoners, and as only one person 
was allowed to enter that at a time, the visitor was com- 
pelled to await his turn in the antechamber. The lieu- 
tenant would then examine his pass inside and out, spell out 
some words, and guess at the rest, and then inquire the name 
of the person he wished to see, for it was very doubtful if the 



OLD CAPITOL PEisoisr. 333 

^Military Governor could deciplier the manuscript. After 
these preliminaries, a corporal would be directed to bring 

down Mr. from room iTo. — . In due time the prisoner 

would come. If the visitor expected to have a private tcte-a- 
tete, he would soon be undeceived, for the military keeper 
would seat himself directly in front of him, at about three feet 
distance, listen attentively to every word, watch every motion, 
and see that nothing was done to overthrow the Government. 
The visitor would feel exasperated at the idea of having an 
eavesdropper and intermeddler listening to all that was said, 
and feel, too, an almost irresistible impulse to insult him ; but 
he would not have long to think on this breach of courtesy, 
for presently he would see the keeper place his hand on his 
watch, and call out, "Gentlemen, time is up." The lifteeu 
minutes granted for an interview have fled. The prisoner is 
motioned to his room, and the visitor required to withdraw. 

Prison fare in the Old Capitol — and it appeared to have 
been much the same in Forts Lafayette, Warren, McIIenry, 
Mifflin, and Delaware — consisted of bread, (sometimes good,) 
salt pork, and occasionally beef. The pork was of poor 
quality, and was made worse by being badly kept, and illy 
cooked. The beef was such as was seldom eaten by those 
who had any means of procuring better, and who had the 
permission to do so. It had the appearance (when cooked, it 
was generally fried,) of a piece of thick sole-leather, steeped 
in grease, and subjected to the heat of the fire, in an iron 
utensil. Those who had good teeth might masticate it, 
with an effort, but even then they could not swallow it. 

Under these circumstances, prisoners of state, and others 
who could afford it, clubbed together and formed messes in 
their rooms, and by the aid of Corporal Brown in the Old 
Capitol, procured such edibles as they could prevail on that 
functionary to purchase for them. The principal mess of 
this kind, in the Old Capitol, among the prisoners of state, 
was in room JSTo. 16. Each member of the mess paid, when 
called on by the commissary, his portion of the week's ex- 
penses for provisions. 



334 • AMERICAN BASTILE. 

This, of course, did not include tobacco, cigars, and such 
other hixurics as individuals cliose to indulge in. When 
meats were procured, through the gracious aid of Corporal 
Brown, and the permission of Superintendent Wood, the 
cooking was done by one of the contrabands of the establish- 
ment, who was always paid, of course, for his services. 
Before the formation of this mess, the prisoners of state fared 
badly, and many of them were indebted to their families 
and friends for the w^holesome food that was at times 
i'urnished them. It is just to say of Superintendent Wood, 
that it was no fault of his that the prisoners of state fared 
so badly. General Mansfield, when Military Governor of 
Washington City, gave orders that the prisoners should be 
fed on side pork and hard biscuit — the worst that could be 
procured. Mr. Wood remonstrated with the General on this 
order, saying that the prisoners were not convicts, that they 
were under no sentence of any tribunal, judicial or military, 
but were merely held to await a trial, and that most of them 
were gentlemen who were not used to such hard living as he 
prescribed. 

" D — n them ! " was General Mansfield's reply ; " they are 
all traitors, or they would not be there " — meaning the Old 
Capitol. " They shall have nothing else but what I have 
ordered — that is good enough for them." 

Superintendent Wood became indignant at this, and told 
the General to his face, that " the prisoners were just as good 
men as he was, and he'd be d — d if they did not have good 
bread, at least while he was Superintendent of the Old 
Capitol." And he made his word good, for, on being refused 
bread for his prisoners by General Mansfield, he engaged the 
bakers near the prison to furnish all that he needed. 

When the Almighty became so provoked at the wicked- 
ness of the King of Babylon, that he could not sufier him- 
self to be outraged any longer, lie wrote the mysterious sen- 
tence of the King's punishment on the wall of his dining- 
hall. Whether it was in imitation of this that the Old 
Capitol prisoners wrote their condemnation of Mr. Lincoln 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 335 

and liis fellow-tjrants on the walls of their prison, we cannot 
say, but certain it is that these prison walls were almost liter- 
ally covered with sentiments expressive of the indignation of 
those who had been deprived of their liberties and rights. It 
was a custom of the prisoners to write their names in pencil on 
the walls of the first room in which the}^ were incarcerated, 
adding the date of their arrest, the alleged cause of it, if sus- 
2:)ected or known, and then adding their opinions, sometimes 
in doggerel, of their rulers. It is easy to see that by degrees 
— a little being added by every new comer — the walls would 
soon be covered with writing. This was the case, and it be- 
came so offensive that whitew^ashing was resorted to, in order 
to destroy it. l^or was it writing alone with which the Old 
Capitol walls w^ere disfigured, speaking administratively. 
Various designs of flags, caricatures, etc., were conspicuously 
displayed on them, some of which laid considerable claim 
to artistic merit. As a number of the prisoners were Con- 
federates, the devices on the walls were generally such as sig- 
nified the feelings and sentiments of the people of the South. 
Rebel flags, both of" the Southern States and of the Confede- 
racy, were profusely displayed ; and in one room was a nearly 
full-sized figure of Stonewall Jackson on his war charger. 
Thrown in among Rebel songs, sentiments, and flags, a 
Northerner would have a fling at the AdministratioD, in 
some of his sentiments. We here give our readers two speci- 
mens, which were copied from the walls of room ISTo. 10 : 

»' In fancy free my mind doth roam 
From prison walls to distant home ; 
No prison walls my thoughts can bound, 
No tyrant's power can make me fear ; 
Though hireling bayonets me surround, 

AVhat I was free, I still am here. 
I still am free by truth and right, 
A prisoner, not by law, but might. 
The victim of a despot's will, 
I 'm doomed a felon's place to fill : 
I 'm called a traitor, base pretence ; 
I love my country, my offence. 



Sob AMERICAN BASTILE. 

/ 
Country, once how happy thou, 

But wliere are all thy glories now ? 

"Where that liberty, thy boast. 

Where that Union, once our toast ? 

Liberty in shackles weeps. 

While her avenger rashly sleeps. 

Avenger, sayst thou ? Where are they 

Who once o'er this broad land held sway? 

Where are the freemen who would not brook 

The rule of sceptre, crown, or crook ? 

Degenerate they in every state 

Which made their fathers good and great." 

Another was as follows : 

AN APPEAL TO FREE AMERICANS. 

" Freemen, ye sleep while the Nation is dying ; 
Arouse from your stupor, ye sons of the brave ; 
See, in the Bastiles your comrades are lying ; 
Shall tyranny trample them down to the grave ? 

No! you reply. 

Freemen will die, 
Rather than one shall live as a slave. 

" Come, then, to the rescue, let each one be striving 
For who shall be foremost in liberty's cause : 
Down with the Bastiles! see, the tyrants are flying, 
Who outraged their country, its honor and laws. 

Victims of might, 

Servants of right, 
The tyrants are worsted — join us in applause." 

At the bottom of this was signed the name of the author, 
80 that there could be no mistaking who was the oftender. 
This w^as but one of the many evidences wM'itten on the walls, 
and uttered in the hearing of those whose duty it was to 
convey the information to headquarters, of the spirit which 
still animated the emaciated bodies of those political martyrs. 
They could be imprisoned by might — they could be treated 
with indignity, without having the physical strength to re- 
sent it — they could be almost starved to enforce submission ; 
but it w^as not in the power (mighty as it became with a 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 337 

million of armed men at its back,) of tlie Administration to 
shackle the spirits of freemen. 

On a pleasant Sunday morning in August, 1862, the occu- 
■oants of the prison were startled by an extraordinarj' exchv- 
mation, which rang through every room of the Bastile : " All 
ye who want to hear the Lord God preached according to 
Jeff Davis, go down to the yard ; and all ye who want to 
hear the Lord God preached according to Al)e Lincoln, go 
down to N'o. 16." Before the inmates had fully recovered 
from their surprise. Superintendent Wood made his appear- 
ance at the door of No. 13, repeating the invitation to its 
inmates as he had to those of the other rooms, as he came 
along. " Suppose," inquired one of the prisoners, " that we 
do not want to hear the Lord God preached according either 
to Jeff" Davis or Abe Lincoln, what then, Mr. Wood ? " To 
which the accommodating Superintendent replied : " Oh, then, 
you can stay in your room." 

JNlr. Wood, as the reader may as well be informed, was an 
infidel, or pretended to be such; and was no doulit sincere in 
his profession. It was not so much the respect he bore Jeft' 
Davis or Abe Lincoln, that he invited the prisoners to hear 
the Lord God preached according to either of their standards, 
as the utter disbelief in the Gospel itself, and a desire to 
manifest his contempt for the word of God, and pity for any 
who were so credulous as to believe in it. And yet, with 
all, he had a good heart, when his better feelings were not 
thwarted by his prejudices, and especially by his partisan 
failings. When the dictates of humanity, and the interests 
of party conflicted with each other, the struggle for mastery 
was often strong and violent. The partisan generally had 
the best of it in the outset, but in due time passion became 
gratified, reason asserted its influence, and the finer feelings 
of the heart took possession of the man, and directed his 
actions. Although none of the prisoners cared to hear the 
Lord God blasphemed by a Jeff Davis or A lie Lincoln 
preacher, yet all availed themselves of the opportunity to 
obtain an airing in the yard. The preaching, according to 



338 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

Jeff Davis, was done by a Ilard-sliell Baptist, wlio delivered 
a sensible discourse on the causes which produced the then 
existing difficulties. He attributed the war to the fanaticism, 
zealotrj^, and bigotry of ISTew England — to lier temperance 
lecturers, her tract distributers, her missionary societies. 
Those, he argued, constituted one of the exciting causes of 
the war, as well as Abolitionism. New England, he said, 
assumed tliat all the rest of mankind, and especially the 
Southern States, were living in ignorance of the knowledge 
of God, and of the words and works of God ; and she felt 
herself called on to be, not only the instructress of the world, 
but guardian of the weak, and chastiser of the wicked. 
Hence she sent her lecturers through the country, declaiming 
against the immoralities of the South, when it was a statis- 
tical fact that there was more immoralit}' in herself, than in 
any other portion of the Union. She scattered her religious 
tracts through the South, not for the purpose of teaching 
the reader how to know and love God, but, in a latent, in- 
sidious manner, to teach the slaves how to become disobe- 
dient and rebellious toward their masters. Such was the 
conduct of Xew England, said " the preacher according to 
Jeff Davis," toward the South, and it was sach conduct 
that resulted in provoking the South to resist the injuries 
sought to be inflicted on her. There was not much Gospel, 
but a considerable amount of fact in it, and the conclusions 
drawn by the preacher accorded with the judgment of his 
audience. As soon as the speaker had closed his discourse, 
the Superintendent, who liked neither the religious nor 
political sentiments of the preacher, called his attention to 
another text of Scripture, which says, " I did not cdme to 
present you with peace, but with a sword.'' The sermon or 
discourse having been founded on the beautiful hymn of th.-: 
ano-els. '' Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth tf 
men of good will." And it was both to show there was a 
contradiction in the word of God, and to confound the 
preacher, that his attention was called to the other text. 
But the preacher was not at all disconcerted. On the con- 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 339 

trary, "he turned the tables on the unbeliever, and instrument 
of arbitrary power, showing him that the sword Christ re- 
ferred to, was the word of God, which he was using with 
effect, on just such persons as he and those in whose employ 
he was. His audience approved of the castigation of the 
Superintendent, and could scarcely refrain from applauding 
him. Thus ended the " preaching of the Lord God, accord- 
ing to Jeff Davis," on that Sunday. " The preaching of the 
Gospel, according to Abe Lincoln," was done by an Aboli- 
tionist named Spears, and his wnfe. Spears very charitably 
and disinterestedly (he was looking after a chaplaincy, which 
he soon after secured,) volunteered his Sunday services to 
carry the glad tidings of the Gospel, according to the fashion 
of the day, to the inmates of the Old Capitol. 

He was accompanied by his wife — one of those lank, skinny, 
cadaverous she-males, to which nature in some of her freaks 
or blunders gave the sex of woman. Mrs. Spears not only 
spoke through her nose, as most of her kind do, but when 
she did speak, she put a finger to that organ, as if to make 
her nasal twang more perfect in her estimation, and more 
disagreeable to her hearers. She, of course, spoke first, and 
it was with some difficulty that her audience refrained from 
a burst of laughter, so ludicrous was her tout ensemble^ and so 
impudently presumptuous was her address. She spoke but 
a few minutes, being satisfied, no doubt, that her efforts were 
not appreciated. It was then the turn of her spouse, w^ho 
was an excellent match for her in every respect. He was an 
Abolitionist and a preacher on the same principle that one 
is a shoemaker or other tradesman — it paid. And, although 
but a very indifferent exponent of either Abolitionism or 
" the Gospel, according to Abe Lincoln," he made up in pre- 
sumption what he lacked in ability. His sermon, if such a 
farrago of cant and nonsense as he uttered could be so called, 
was a mixture of scriptural quotations, jumbled together with- 
out application, and of suggestions to the prisoners that there 
was hope even for them in the kingdom of Christ. The 
hypocritical knave ! just as if the meanest person confined 



340 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

there was not an angel of light compared to him, who had 
volunteered to give spiritual comfort to the inmates of the 
Bastile, only that attention might be attracted to his disin- 
terested services, (?) and that he might he rewarded with 
what he was seeking to obtain — a chaplaincy in one of the 
city hospitals. 

As there were no guards in Iso. 10, considerable " skylark- 
ing " was indulged in by the prisoners, in their endeavor to 
while away the lonely and wearisome hours of their im- 
prisonment ; and it was on such occasions that the dance, 
of which we are about to give an account, occurred. Being 
unable to sleep for the vermin, Messrs. Sheward and Apple 
proposed to Mr. Crolly to have a dance. 

Mr. Crolly was an old bachelor, who had been engaged for 
many years as a railroad contractor in Virginia. On the 
breaking out of the war, the State of Virginia was largely in 
his debt. It so happened that, at the time of the battles be- 
fore Eichmond, Mr. Crolly was at that place, endeavoring to 
procure a settlement of his account witli the State, wbicli he 
had effected so far as to ascertain how much was due him, 
but did not get his money. After obtaining the settlement, 
Mr. Crolly returned to his home, in Western Virginia, then in 
possession of the Federal army, and recognizing the authority 
of the Federal Government. Being an industrious man, he 
determined to turn his attention to mercantile business ; and, 
for that purpose, visited Baltimore, late in August, 18()2, to 
purchase goods. While there, he fell in with an Irishman, 
a countryman of his, who, it turned out, was in the employ 
of Baker, Chief Detective of the War Department. This 
fellow soon found out that Crolly was a goose well feathered, 
and, learning from him some of his antecedents, had him 
arrested and taken before the Provost ]\Ijirshal of Baltimore, 
who, after hearing Mr. Crolly make an honest statement of 
himself, discharged him. But his quondam friend, the de- 
tective, determined that he should not get off in that way, 
procured an order from AVashington for his apprehension. 
This time, he was in Baker's clutches, from whose grasp 



OLD CAPITOL PEISOJf. 341 

there was no escape, but by tbe relaxing power of money. 
So Crolly was thrust into the Old Capitol, and became an in- 
mate of ISTo. 10, where, from a fancied resemblance to General 
Jackson, he was called by that name, and was so known by 
his fellow-prisoners. 

Mr. Crolly was an old man, of not less than sixty years of 
age, but he was as straight as a shingle, and prided himself 
on his many accomplishments, among which was that of 
dancing. 

" Can you dance, Jackson ? " inquired Apple, putting his 
head out of his bunk, on the occasion referred to. 

" Huh ! in faith, I can," was the reply. 

" What can you dance ? " inquired the mischievous Apple. 

" Anything at all you wish," replied Jackson. 

By tins time, every one in the room was sitting up in bed, 
and a light had been struck. 

" Sheward," inquired Apple, " can you whistle?" 

" Yes," replied Sheward ; " what do you want me to do?" 

"Jackson, here, says he can dance, and I just want to see 
if he can. If you will whistle, I '11 beat ' juber ' for him, and 
we will see if he is playing off on us or not. Jackson," con- 
tinued Apple, " come down here, and let us see what you 
can do." 

Jackson, when thus addressed, was in the bunk over 
Apple, and without more ado, down he came, in his night- 
shirt and drawers, straightened himself up, and took position 
to begin. Sheward whistled, Apple beat "juber," Crolly 
danced with a will, and the rest of the crowd roared with 
laughter. Crolly's feet were applied to the floor so vigor- 
ously, that the rickety old building fairly shook, and in a 
few minutes, a crash was heard below. 

" To bed with you, you devil ! " was shouted at Crolly ; and 
to bed he jumped, as nimbly as a youth of sixteen. He was 
scarcely there before the corporal of the guard made his ap- 
pearance at the door. 

" What the h — 1 and d n are you fellows doing up 

here ? " inquired the irritated corporal. 



342 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" "Why, what 's the matter, corporal," said one of the 
prisoners, in a voice as if he had just been aroused from 
sleep. 

" The whole ceiling under here has just fallen down on Col- 
onel Kohler, and he is d — d near dead." 

" How did it happen, corporal ? " was the apparently anx- 
ious inquiry. 

" Happen," replied the corporal, " why, you fellows have 
been making a noise up here ; that 's how it happened, and 
there 's the devil to pay." 

" Corporal, just look here," said one. " Do you see this 
man lying on the floor," pointing at the same time to War- 
ner Perry, whose bedstead was the floor. " Every time he 
rolls over, this house shakes. Perry," said he, addressing 
the gentleman on the floor, " won't you roll over, to let the 
corporal see how it is ? " 

Mr. Perry, who weighed fifty pounds under or over three 
liundred, gave a roll which shook the building. "There, 
corporal," continued the spokesman, " if anything has hap- 
pened down stairs, it came of leaving that man sleep on the 
floor." 

" T> — d if I don't believe it 's so," remarked the corporal 
and immediately left, satisfied that nothing wrong had oc- 
curred in Xo. 10. The occupants were in glee at the decep- 
tion practised on the corporal, but anxious to learn if any 
harm had befallen Colonel Kohler. Their fears, however, 
were allayed by his appearance among them the following 
morning, by special permission. His first salute to them, on 
entering the room, was : " What the devil were you fellows 
about last night ? " Seeing that he had escaped unhurt, they 
told him the whole story, and he enjoyed it as much as any 
of them. 

Prom him they learned the extent of the catastrophe. It 
appears that a large piece of the ceiling had fallen down, but 
fortunately missed both the Colonel and a Major who was 
his room-mate. 

About the latter part of March, or the first of April, Mr. 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 343 

Jesse W. AVharton, a young man of about twenty-six years 
of age — son of Dr. Wharton, Professor of Agricultural 
Chemistry in Prince George County, Maryland — was wan- 
tonly murdered by Harrison Baker, a member of the 91st 
Pennsylvania Regiment, then stationed as a guard at the Old 
Capitol. 

One of the regulations of the prison was that no one should 
protrude his head or limbs beyond the line of the building 
when looking from the windows. On this unfortunate occa- 
sion, the deceased gentlenuin was standing at the window of 
room K"o. 10, and was strictly within the prescribed limits, 
when Baker, the sentry in the yard, very insultingly ordered 
him away, " or he would blow his d — d head off." Mr. 
Wharton, feeling indignant, made some rejoinder, then turn- 
ing, paced the room several times, and quickly presented 
himself at the window again, with his arms folded over his 
breast, looking out. The sentinel (Baker) again, without 
any reasonable provocation, ordered him away with a threat. 
Mr. Wharton, believing he was not infringing any of the 
rules, paid no attention to the levelled musket in the guard's 
hands, and kept his position in the room, his arms still folded, 
when the sentry, with the most guilty thirst for the blood of 
an unarmed prisoner, confined without the least chance of 
escape, took deliberate aim and fired his piece : the minio 
ball passing through the hand of the left arm, and the elbow 
of the right, breaking the bone, and entering exactly at the 
right nipple, passed out near the spine, going through the 
lungs. Still erect, he gazed fixedly at his murderer a mo- 
ment, then began to reel backward, when two of his room- 
mates caught him in their arms and lowered him to the floor. 
He remained quiet until the doctors came, when he called for 
the Lieutenant (Mulligan) commanding the post, and he 
having come, Wharton bid him face him, when he clearly 
and distinctly, in the presence of the doctors and his fellow- 
prisoners, accused Lieutenant Mulligan of Imving given the 
order to fire — he having heard him — and branded him as his 
murderer ; calling upoji him to look upon a dying man, and 



344 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

hear his sentence from the chilling lips of his unoffending 
victim. Whatever the officer thought, he exhihited no emo- 
tion, but the most slavish fear, and then left the room with- 
out a word, with Cain's brand upon him. The dying pris- 
oner lingered eight hours from the time of his being shot, 
(about 11 o'clock a.m.,) and was attended by his young wife 
and two sisters, until his last gasp betokened him death's 
prisoner, and the grave his next cell. 

" Nccar, and more near 
They bent, with pale inquiry, and close ear : 
His eyes were shut — no motion — not a breath — 
The gentle s^ufferer was at peace in death." 

]\rr. Wharton was formerly an officer in the United States 
regular service, noted for the most undaunted courage, and 
a liberality of heart and qualities of mind which had made 
liim numerous friends wherever he had sojourned, lie re- 
signed his commission in the Federal Army, and was conse- 
quently arrested by the Government, and confined, for fear 
of his going South. The sentinel who shot him was after- 
ward promoted — a sad commentary on national honor, as 
expounded by the Administration of Mr. Lincoln. 

In the latter part of May, the same year, Mr. Harry Stew- 
art, aged about twenty-three years, and a son of Dr. Frederick 
Stewart, of Baltimore, was shot by a sentinel belonging to 
the 86th Regiment New York Volunteers, under tbe follow- 
ing circumstances. Mr. Stewart was a fine young gentleman, 
of short, but robust stature, and of excellent qualities, and 
having been to Richmond, was arrested on his return as a 
spy. The cliarge being a serious one, he was anxious to 
escape, and the sentry who shot him having several times 
committed himself by introducing such remarks as would 
lead the prisoners to believe him open for a bribe, Stewart 
managed to converse with him, when the sentinel told him 
])0sitively that lie would, for fifty dollars, connive at his 
escape, and permit him to pass from the second-story window 
to the pavement below, without molestation. For at least 



OLD CAPITOL PEISON. 345 

a week this plan was discussed, giving the guard ample time 
to revoke his bargain, if he desired ; but he still encouraged 
Stewart in the attempt, and finally fixed the night himself, 
he being on guard from 10 to 12, and from 4 to 6 o'clock. 
Mr. Stewart remained up all night waiting the signal of his 
co-operator, which occurred about 4 o'clock a. m., the sentinel 
calling him, and saying, " now was his time," and to make 
haste. Stewart, trusting to the man's honesty of purpose, 
swung himself, by a rope, from the window, and before he 
was three feet below the window, the sentry cried halt ! and 
in less than a second, he fired his musket: the ball, penetrat- 
ing the right leg below the knee, and passing through it, 
completely splintered the bone, and passed out between the 
knee and the hip on the inside. His friends pulled him into 
the room again, and before the proper applications could be 
administered, great loss of blood prostrated the sufferer 
exceedi^gl3^ About 11 o'clock, the prison surgeon. Dr. 
Stewart, came, when he determined to amputate the leg, 
there being no other hope. The operation was performed 
before the system had rallied from the great nervous shock 
sustained, and the loss of blood being severe, the patient 
expired within an hour of the amputation. Chloroform 
was administered. The fifty dollars were found in the young 
man's pocket, wrapped up for the sentry ; and written on 
the paper containing the money Avas the sentence : " This is 
the money I promised you." The bribery was clearly proven, 
the deliberation attending the attempt to murder was ap- 
parent, and proof that the sentry called him was ready, 
and yet the authorities did not even punish the guilty 
sentinel, but actually put the villain on guard afterward. 
The same sentinel deserted, and was brought back in Novem- 
ber to the Old Capitol, a prisoner. He was one of the most 
villanous-looking human beings that ever had the face and 
head of a man. 

It frequently happened that prisoners would be brought in 
at night. When this was the case, the scene presented to 
the new comer's vision was anything but prepossessing. Let 



846 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

llie introduction be in ISTo. 16, for the purpose of giving the 
reader some idea of the scenes presented to the prisoner's 
view. After passing through the ordeal of an examination 
of baggage, etc., (if he was so fortunate as to have any,) in 
the " Captain's office," he would be accompanied up stairs to 
16, by probably a Sergeant, or Corporal of the guard, or pos- 
sibly by a Lieutenant. The door of the room was unlocked 
by the sentinel or guard, and the light of a candle, carried 
by the officer, revealed to the inquisitive eye of the prisoner 
his future quarters, containing, say, twenty persons. To the 
right as he entered were three or four shakedowns on the 
floor, each one occupied by a sleeper. To his left, and a little 
farther on, and with just space enough to walk carefully be- 
tween the sleepers, were two or three more of the victims. 
On tables in the centre of the room were two others. These 
tables were used in the daytime for eating on and playing 
cards. At night, a couple of straw ticks were laid on them, 
and they were used by some of the prisoners as beds. Just 
beyond were the beds on the floor. Every foot, almost, of the 
floor was occupied in that way, while most of the bunks, of 
which there were twenty-one, were empty. 

The officer would then hunt round, with the aid of Com- 
missary Brown, or his assistant Charley, until he found a 
place for the new comer to lie down, when he would leave 
him to undergo a cross-examination by some of the sleepers, 
who had been waked by the noise and confusion, and who 
would proceed to put to him such queries as the following: 
" Stranger, it is the custom of this place to inquire of every 
new comer his name, place of residence, and for what he was 
sent here. In accordance with this custom, although you 
may think the inquiry impertinent, I now ask your name." 

Stranger gives his name. 

" Will you now please to tell us where you are from ? " 

Stranger complies. 

" The next question we have to put, and to which we re- 
quest an answer, is, what have you done? or what are you 
accused of having done ? " 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 347 

This was generally a poser, as not one in a liundred knew 
what the charge was upon which he had heen arrested. So 
some explanation was given, which generally led to such a 
conversation between the new comer and the other prisoners, 
as enabled them to form a pretty accurate opinion of the 
character of their new associate. 

There are but few circumstances in life, in which men 
could be placed, where their character could be sooner esti- 
mated, and properly appreciated, than in the Old Capitol. 
^Nature in man had more of its influence in such a place than 
when he was at liberty, his good and ill qualities becoming 
apparent at once ; and it was seldom that a proper estimate 
was not made of a man in Is^o. 16, on his first introduction. 
The stranger having answered the queries put to him, if by 
his deportment and manner he had shown himself to be 
worthy of respect, he was asked if he had had supper? or, if it 
was in the daytime, after the usual hours of meals, whether 
he had had breakfast or dinner, as the case might be. If he 
replied in the negative. Commissary Sheward rummaged his 
larder, and generally produced some bread and butter, (the 
latter purchased by the prisoners themselves), and possibly a 
portion of meat, of which there was generally some on hand, 
the purchase also of the prisoners, that furnished by the 
Government being seldom eaten. This, and a general intro- 
duction all round, concluded the initiatory ceremonies of a 
new prisoner to l^o. 16 ; and thenceforward, the new comer 
was treated as a brother victim of the despotism which then 
reigned in Washington. The new comer was duly informed, 
if he had only swindled the Government, and especially of a 
large sum, or run the blockade, or done anything else con- 
trary to law which resulted in putting money in his pocket, 
lie was all right, and would soon be released — a part of the 
money he had made would do it; but if he had dared to 
think and say that his country's liberties were in danger, 
then God help him. Three months, at least, would not ex- 
piate his crime. 



348 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

"Shun sycophants of all denominations, 
All clever fellows with the mark of danger ; 



Shut close your soul to all, and be alone." 



The Administration, not content with having deprived its 
victims of their rights, and with holding them writhing in its 
tyrannical grasp, established a system of espionage over them. 
This was done by means of detectives, who ostensibly appeared 
among the other prisoners, as prisoners of state. One of these 
detectives, it was understood, indeed, one of the ofHcers of 
the prison so stated, was in every room of the prison, and 
that no word could escape his hearing, and no act his obser- 
vation. Lieutenant Miller, who appeared to be, for a time, 
the principal officer of the Old Capitol, next to Superin- 
tendent Wood, made a boast, that there was nothing said or 
done in any room of the prisons that he was not aware of. 
This was, to some extent at least, true ; but in spite of the 
espionage of these detectives, the prisoners would and did 
have communication with each other, and once in a while 
with friends. 

It is unnecessary to enter into a description of a guard- 
house. It is sufficient to say that it was a place of punish- 
ment for drunken and refractory soldiers. It was used in the 
Old Capitol for other purposes. A Confederate captain was 
placed in the guard-house, contrary to the rules of war, by 
Lieutenant Miller, who was in command of the guard at the 
time. This was in September, 1862. But it was not prison- 
ers of war alone, who were subjected to the indignity of the 
guard-house. I*risoners of state, and other Federal prisoners, 
w^ere subjected to this punishment on the most frivolous 
grounds. 

A Mr. Hopkins, of Washington City, who was arrested and 
sent to the Old Capitol for selling liquors contra rj^ to the 
orders of Military Governor Wadsworth and Provost Mar- 
shal Doster, was sent to the guard-house under the following 
circumstances: Mr. Hopkins asked and obtained permission 
to send for some brandy for his own use. The permission 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 349 

was granted, witli the conditiou that he would phice the 
liquor in charge of the hospital steward, which condition 
he complied with. 

On the following mprning, after receiving his liquor, he 
went, according to agreement, to get a portion of it, when he 
was informed by the steward that Lieutenant Miller had, 
during the night, taken the liquor away, adding that the 
Lieutenant had some brother officers for company, and as he 
presumed Mr. Hopkins's liquor to be of good quality, he made 
free to take it. As might be supposed, this information was 
not very welcome, or pleasing intelligence to Mr. Hopkins, 
who left the hospital immediately to return to his room. 
On the way throngh the yard, he fell in with Lieutenant 
Miller, who bid Hopkins good morning very cordially and 
familiarly. " Good morning. Lieutenant," returned Hopkins, 
who by this time had recovered his usual good humor. A 
few more words passed between them, when Hopkins ven- 
tured in the most familiar tone to remind the Lieutenant 
that he had purloined his liquor, and spoke of his disappoint- 
ment. It was not said reproachfully, for Llopkins cared 
but little about it, as he would have given it freely if 
asked, but as one familiar and even friendly with another 
might intimate. Lieutenant Miller took the matter in 
another light, however, and seized Mr. Hopkins by the collar 
in the most ruffianly manner, dragged him to the guard- 
house, and kept him there in filth and without food until 
the next day. Every person in the building was indignant 
at this outrage, and it would not have taken much provoca- 
tion to have incited them to resist it. 

Sundays wore observed by refraining from the usual amuse- 
ments which occupied the time and attention of the prisoners 
on other days. On one occasion, (Sunday,) Mr. V. R. Jackson, 
a resident of Washington, was looking through the window 
in ISTo. 16, when some acquaintances of his chanced to ride by 
in a barouche. They recognized each other — they by bowing 
to him, and he by touching his hat to them. 

One of the guard, who was on the qui vive to observe the 



350 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

gestures of the passers-by, ordered tlie gentlemen in the 
barouche to halt, which they, of course, did, not wishing to 
have a bullet shot into it, which would have been the inevi- 
table consequence of noncompliance with the order. The 
party was compelled to alight from the vehicle, and enter the 
prison, when they, no doubt, to exculpate themselves, in- 
formed Lieutenant Miller that they had only bowed in return 
to a salute from their friend, Mr. Jackson. Lieutenant Miller 
started up stairs immediately, accompanied by a corporal. 
He inquired who it was that had made a sign of recognition 
to those gentlemen who had just been arrested by the guard. 
No one answered at first ; when he directed his inquiry to 
Mr. Jackson, asking that gentleman if his name was not 
Jackson, and if he was not a clerk in the Post-Office. Mr. 
Jackson replied in the affirmative. The Lieutenant then 
asked him if he had not taken his hat off to the gentlemen 
in the barouche. Jackson replied that he was not certain 
that he had done that, but admitted that he had touched his 
hat to the gentlemen, they being acquaintances and friends 
of his, and he was not aware that it was forbidden. " Take 
him to the guard-house," commanded Miller to the corporal, 
and Jackson was seized suddenly by the corporal, and de- 
tained until bedtime, and would probably have been kept 
there all night, had it not been for the solicitations of his 
fellow-prisoners and the interposition of the Superintendent. 
Frank P. Blair, Jr., a son of General Frank P. Blair, Jr., 
of Missouri, was put in the guard-house for going into the 
room next to No. 16, and was sent there another time for 
making a little more noise than Lieutenant Miller thought 
it right for a prisoner to do. It was small business for Lieu- 
tenant Miller to outrage the " private and hallowed " feelings 
of gentlemen who happened to be placed in his power, by 
placing them in the guard-house for bowing to a friend on 
the streets of Washino-ton throusih the barred windows of 
the Old Capitol. Petty tyranny, exercised by a shoulder- 
strapped official, was never better exemplified than it was in 
several instances in this prison, where, beside the cases re- 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 351 

ferred to above, two insane men (one, a man formerly well 
known in Kew York in connection with the anti-rent excite- 
ment, by the name of Burrell,) were repeatedly placed in the 
guard-house, not to prevent them from doing mischief, but as a 
punishment for some trifling ofl:ence. 

Burrell, better known in the jrt'ison as General Thunder- 
bolt, imagined himself to be the person designated by Provi- 
dence to command the Federal Army, and lead it to victory. 
Under the influence of this hallucination he had sought an 
interview with President Lincoln, at his country residence, 
the Soldiers' Home, and being taken into custody by some 
one, the President and his friends took it into their frightened 
heads that Burrell was an assassin, and so the poor lunatic 
was sent down to the Old Capitol. It appeared that he had 
been to liichmond, which circumstance gave color to the 
accusation of evil designs upon the President. 

Whenever Burrell happened to be in the yard at recreation 
time, he was the centre of attraction. Insane as he was, he 
was as caustic in his sarcasms and witty in repartee as if his 
intellect were perfectly sound. 

One day. Lieutenant Miller inquired of him what he 
thought of the Rebel soldiers in comparison with those of 
the Federal Army. Said Miller : " Don't you think. General, 
that you could whip them Rebels yourself? " 

" Yes," said General Thunderbolt, " of course I could ! But 
I '11 tell you what, Lieutenant, if the Federal Army were all 
like you, one Rebel could whip every five of you." 

Of course this disparaging compliment, albeit applied by 
a crazy man, could not be brooked with impunity. So the 
poor " General " was sent to the guard-house. 

There "vyas another crazy fellow, an Irishman in appearance, 
who any one might see at a glance was insane. He Mas an 
inofiensive creature, yet this poor demented fellow and Thun- 
derbolt were oftener in the guard-house, than any other pris- 
oners in the establishment. It was purely an exercise of 
brute tyranny to send either of them to such a place. 

The prisoners generally in the Old Capitol were permitted 



352 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

to spend a half-hour at each mealtime in the yard, or rather 
so much of that time as was not occupied in eating. The 
prisoners who took their meals in their room could so arrange 
the time of eating as to take the whole half-hour allowed in 
the yard in recreation : most of the time, however, there was 
no room in it to indulge in any exercise. It was full of tents 
and prisoners, both Federal and Confederate, so that all the 
recreation which could be indulged in, was for them to gather 
in a crowd, and elbow their way through the throng. Even 
that was made disagreeable to them by being dogged by the 
detectives and spies, who were ever on the alert to listen to 
their conversation and watch their actions. ]!^o sooner would 
a few prisoners stand in a group to converse with each other, 
than one of these detectives, pretending to be a prisoner like 
the others, would approach, and manifest the greatest possi- 
ble interest in the subject of the conversation. If it ha|> 
pened to be on the atlairs of the Government, or the state of 
the country, or the outrageous course of the Administration, 
as their conversations often were, then the spies became trebly 
interested. 

They were sure to put in a word which was calculated to 
draw out others. Sometimes one would forget for the mo- 
ment that he was a prisoner, and feeling as an 'American free- 
man, would give such expression to his emotions and convic- 
tions as would thrill his audience, and load the detective with 
valuable information for headquarters. Of course, every con- 
versation of that kind was carefully noted, and those who 
had participated in it were more vigilantly observed. Dur- 
ing the month of October, and up to the 22d of JSTovember, 
1862, (when the discharge of the political prisoners occurred,) 
the yard was comparatively clear of rubbish, so that the 
prisoners had, during the half-hour of time allowed them, an 
opportunity to exercise. This they did generally in pairs, 
one object of which was to avoid the detectives. 

In this way, the prisoners, who were well acquainted with 
each other, would take what was called their recreation. 
Those who were not so fortunate as to have acquaintances, 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 353 

fell of course into tlie hands of the detectives, who through 
them found out what they could of those whom they coukl 
not so familiarly approach. About the latter end of October, 
several balls and chains were placed in the yard. Their 
appearance was regarded, by most of the prisoners, as 
significant, nothing of the kind having been there before. 
For some daj-s, no one ventured near these instruments of 
punishment, their very appearance in such a place being so 
suggestive of disagreeable emotions, as to keep off the most 
reckless. At length, however, some of the younger prisoners 
ventured to approach and handle them, and soon after they 
were used by the crowd for gj'mnastic exercise. The yard 
recreation, though monotonous, had nevertheless some variety, 
as there was something new occurring every day. Often, dur- 
ing the time of recreation, new prisoners were brought in. 
The whole crowd would gather round the stranger to learn 
the news, and for the time being the scene would be quite 
animated. If the new comers happened, as was often the 
case, to be prisoners of war, more reliable information was 
obtained from them of the result of the battles in which they 
participated, than the news agent was allowed to publish. 

The amusements of the prison proper were but few and 
simple. Most of the prisoners played cards all day long, and 
until roll-call, at nine o'clock at night. The favorite game 
was bluff, or poker, and the stakes or chips were one-cent 
pieces. It was as amusing to a looker-on to see with what 
earnestness and feeling the game was played, as it was to the 
players themselves. They would have had nothing to keep 
them from thinking of the outrages to which they were sub- 
jected, had it not been for card-playing. Whoever invented 
cards, no matter how much they have been the means of 
doing mischief, contributed to the gratification of his fellow- 
beings in no small degree. And that there is amusement in 
them for the most enlightened and cultivated intellect, aa 
there is for the simplest and most ignorant of mankind, 
cannot be questioned. 

L-E-T-T-E-R-8 1 Once a day, the Superintendent, or, in his 



354 AMEEICANBASTILE. 

absence, Lieutenant Miller, called at the rooms of the prison 
for letters. When the Superintendent came round, every one 
crowded about him, each urging some request or other. One, 
that a letter might be allowed to reach his wife ; another, 
that his might be sent, for certain, to his mother ; and so on 
through the whole number. The Superintendent invaria- 
bly did his best to have the prisoners' letters passed through 
the hands of the Provost Marshal, or Judge Advocate, as 
the case might be. Every letter written by the prisoners 
was lianded to the Superintendent or his deputy, indorsed, 
except letters to high officials, which might be sealed. The 
letters were examined in the prison, and by some one in the 
office of the Marshal, or the Judge Advocate, so that it de- 
pended on the caprice of those officials, or of their clerks, 
whether any letter should ever reach its destination or not. 
Of course, many letters, of the greatest importance to the 
prisoners and their families, never reached the Post Office ; 
and it was more by the attention and favor of Superintendent 
"Wood that letters ever reached their destination, than it was 
from the attention given to them by any other person con- 
nected with the Government. Hence it was no wonder that 
the prisoners looked more to the Superintendent, than to any 
one else, for the favor, yes, the favor, of having their letters 
sent to their families. Enter, reader, one of the Old Capitol 
Prison rooms, in imagination, when the Superintendent called 
for " letters," announcing his presence for the purpose of 
being the bearer of messages, which told mothers, wives, and 
children at home, how fared the son, husband, or father, in 
the Bastile. ITo sooner would Mr. Wood enter the room 
than a rush would be made for him, by from half a dozen to 
twenty persons, each one eager to have the first chance to 
impress him with the importance of what he wanted to com- 
municate, and to appeal to his feelings, as a man, in behalf 
of the missive he held in his hand. " jSTow, Wood, I am 
sure my letters have not reached home," one would urge in 
a voice modulated to earnest pathos, "or if they have been 
sent, their letters to me have been suppressed. Won't you 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 355 

see whether there are any letters for me at the Provost Mar- 
shal's ofRce?" As likely as not the Superintendent would 
reply : " There are several letters for you at the office of the 
Provost Marshal, but they are not examined : some of the 
Miss Nancy clerks up there have become so important, in 
their own estimation, since they have got into the position 
of examining letters, that they 'take on airs,' and do as they 
please. I cannot help it if your letters are not forwarded, 
or if letters do not reach you." "We know that, Mr. 
Wood," several voices would exclaim in concert. " But," one 
would continue, " it is hard to be deprived of the privilege 
of hearing from home-; and it is equally an outrage to our 
families to be allowed no opportunity to hear from us while 
we are confined in a place like this." "I know it is hard," 
would be the admission of the Superintendent; "but you fel- 
lows had no business to be LocofocosJ' This, of course, would 
be said in a jest, so far as the Superintendent w^as concerned, 
but it was no joke for the prisoners. Their crime was truly 
that they were what Mr. Wood had called them — '-'• Locqfocos " 
— and for that they were kidnapped and imprisoned, and 
deprived of the privilege of hearing from their families, ex- 
cept at the caprice of " Miss ]^ancy " clerks in the office of 
the Provost Marshal, at Washington. "Wood, here is a 
letter — a very short one — containing nothing but to say that 
I am well : cannot this be sent to my wife, without its being 
subject to the risk of being destroyed, in the office of the 
Provost Marshal?" Such would often be the appeal of a 
prisoner. Mr. Wood's reply would be as follows : " I cannot 
send any letters for you, except through the Provost Marshal, 
or Judge Advocate Turner ; but I will do my best to have 
your letter examined and passed." 

"Here is a business letter, Wood," another prisoner would 
urge. "It is of the most vital importance to me and my 
family, that it should reach its address as soon as possible : 
why cannot it be sent immediately?" "That I cannot an- 
swer," would be the reply of the Superintendent. " I am here 
to carry out the orders of the Government, and not to do my 



356 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

own will. The Government, or rather the officers of the 
Government, have their own way of doing things, and I 
must either obey their orders, or give up my place." " We 
would all he sorry that you did that," would he the sincere 
declaration of the prisoners. "If you were not here, Wood, 
we should not receive one in ten of our letters, nor would 
our friends knovr whether we were dead or alive." 

The very first letter sent out by one of the prisoners, called 
forth the follo^\^ilg decree: 

"Headquarters Provost Marshal's Office, 
"Washington, D. C, 18G2. 
"Notliing but family and business letters are allowed to pass. 

W. V. C. MURI'HY." 

This signature had something affixed to it, of which no 
one could make any sense, but it was probably designed to 
show that tJiis Murphy was a person of authority. Whether 
he was or was not, it is very certain that he assumed a great 
deal in opening letters and papers, and throwing them aside 
or destroying them, if they contained anything which he 
deemed objectionable to his masters. Shortly after this, the 
same prisoner was served with a notice to the effect that, if 
his wife did not write her name in full, her letters would be 
suppressed. 

Scenes, similar to those described between the Superinten- 
dent and the prisoners, were of daily occurrence. 

Immediately after the battles fought in the vicinity of 
Washington, in August, 1862, the city was placed under 
martial law. The sale of liquor was prohibited by the Mili- 
tary Governor, under penalty of confiscation. Here was a 
favorable opportunity for the detectives of the War Depart- 
ment to \)\y their vocation, and make a harvest. The plan 
of operation mapped out was for some one of the number, 
who was best acquainted with a liquor-dealer or saloon-keeper, 
marked as a victim, to go and procure from him, if possible, 
something to drink. If successful in the application, no 
matter whether on the score of old acquaintance, familiarity, 



OLD CAPITOL PRISON. 357 

or friendship, information was to be filed forthwith before 
the Provost Marshal, and then the liquors would be seized. 
This programme was carried into effect, and most, if not all 
the liquors seized, were placed under the control of the Pro- 
vost Marshal, better known as Detective Baker. Some time 
after the promulgation of this military order, a Mr. Spahr 
was arrested in Washington City. He suggested to the 
ofhcer, a detective who had him in custod}^, that it would 
not be amiss for them to go and get something to drink, be- 
fore he was taken to the Old Capitol, as it was not likely 
that while there he would be allowed to indulge in that way. 
The officer thought the suggestion a good one, and consented 
to the proposal. Spahr, not wishing to be the means of ac- 
quainting the detective with any of the places known to him, 
where the military order respecting the sale of liquors was 
violated, suggested that the officer indicate a place where 
they could be accommodated, with which suggestion the 
officer complied very cheerfully. The two went to find a 
place of refreshment, and, to the surprise and amusement of 
Mr. Spahr, he was taken into a room back of Provost Mar- 
shal Baker's office, where there was a bar in full blast, well 
supplied with liquors, which, by the way, as Spahr ascertained, 
had been confiscated from the saloon-keepers in Washing- 
ton, who had violated the order of Military Governor Wads- 
worth. Mr. Spahr paid the reckoning at the Provost Mar- 
shal's bar, and went to the Old Capitol, full of meditations 
on the system of government introduced by Mr. Lincoln. 

An investigation into the detective business of the War 
Department would reveal such flagitious violations of law, 
decency, and personal rights, and such corrupt and out- 
rageous practices, having for their sole object the gratifica 
tion of the lust of avarice, if not the lust of the flesh, as 
would place the Government, as administered under Abra- 
ham Lincoln, in disparaging comparison with the most un 
principled of any nation, extant or extinct. 



J 



J. W. PACKARD. 

W. PACKARD was born in ITortli Bridgewater, Mas- 

• sachusetts, in 1833. He resided in Philadelpliia from 
1858 until 1860, when he went to Richmond, Virginia, and 
was engaged as a manufacturer of sewing-machine needles. 

On the 17th of September, 1862, he received permission to 
return Il^orth. Before he left, however, he was arrested by 
the city authorities as a " suspicious character," but after 
an examination, was discharged. The Confederate Govern- 
ment, at the time he left, issued passes to aliens only, unless 
it was shown that the person wishing to leave would do 
nothing detrimental to the "cause" of the South. 

Through the influence of some Confederate officials he 
succeeded in obtaining a permit to pass through the lines, 
and immediately availed himself of the opportunity to leave 
the Confederacy. 

On the way to his home, he stopped in Philadelphia, and 
while there, was arrested by Detective Benjamin Franklin. 
He was deprived of his monej^, valuables, and clothing, and 
incarcerated in Moyamensing Prison. He was not informed 
why he had been arrested, nor permitted to see any of his 
friends. 

The jailer (Money) brought a member of the Philadelphia 
bar to see him. He represented that he could, with a writ 
of habeas corpus, obtain his release, as he was a Republican ; 
and thought that if the case came into court, he, the pri- 
soner, would be discharged, as there was nothing against 
him sufficient to justify his confinement. 

Mr. Packard told him that if he would get him out, he 
would willingly give him Mty dollars for his services ; but 
if he calculated to impose upon him, he would stay there 

858 



J. W. PACKARD. 359 

until his friends worked up his case, and obtained his re- 
lease. This was on the second day of his conlinement ; and 
the attorney, at the close of the conversation detailed above, 
agreed to find out the charges against him, and meet him 
the next morning. Shortly after this interview. Detective 
Franklin, with an assistant, appeared at the prison, and in- 
formed him that he was to go to Fort Lafayette, and ordered 
him to get ready at once. This was easily done, as the detec- 
tive was in possession of his travelling bags containing his 
clothing. 

Arriving in 'New York, he was again incarcerated over 
night, in one of the city prisons, and the following day re- 
moved to Fort Lafayette, where he was kindly greeted by 
the occupants, who did all that gentlemen could to alleviate 
the burden of his imprisonment. 

The second day of his confinement he was taken sick, and 
sent for the surgeon in charge of the Fort, but he had no 
time or inclination to attend him. One of his room-mates 
suggested to him to request the services of a medical gentle- 
man who was in the same casemate. This gentleman attended 
him faithfully, and relieved him of his sickness. 

After being immured for ten days, an order came for 
his release. On applying for his money in Philadelphia, 
he was told a bill must be paid before it could be restored to 
him. Mr. Packard, knowing of no services rendered him, 
demanded to see the bill, and was shown one of three hun- 
dred dollars. After some disputation, two hundred and fifty 
dollars in gold was retained. Another bill for two days' board at 
Moyamensing Prison was presented him, which he paid, at the 
rate of four dollars per diem. There was no cause assigned 
for his arrest, and he certainly never did anything to justify 
it. Mr. Packard now resides at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 
and is still a manufacturer of sewing-machine needles. 



CHARLES MACGILL, M.D. 

DK. CHARLES MACGILL is a native of the city of 
Baltimore, and came of distingnislied ancestry. His 
s;randfatlier on the maternal side was Thomas Jennings, who 
tilled the position of King's Attorney under the Colonial Gov- 
ernment of Maryland. His great-grandfather on the pater- 
nal side was the Rev. James Macgill, from Perth, Scotland, 
who settled in Maryland in 1728, and was the first Rector of 
Queen Caroline Parish, Elkridge, Anne Arundel County, 
Maryland. Charles Macgill, the subject of this sketch, was 
educated at the old Baltimore College, Samuel Knox and 
Gerandine, Professors : the wife and daughter of the latter 
lost their lives by the burning of the Marshall Theatre, Rich- 
mond, Virginia, in 1811, an event still remembered by many. 
Completing his collegiate studies in 1823, he entered the 
office of Dr. Charles G. Worthington, of Elkridge, Maryland, 
where he remained two years, and acquired much knowledge 
in medicine and surgery by association with that noted 
savanf. Subsequently he became a student of the Baltimore 
Hospital, in charge of Dr. Collin Mackenzie, Sen., and the 
private student of Dr. John B. Davidge, founder of the 
University of Maryland, and its first Proctor. Young Mac- 
gill graduated with high honors in the University of Mary- 
land, in 1828. He at once entered upon the practice of his 
profession at Hagerstown, Maryland, in connection with his 
])rother. Dr. William D. Macgill. This association continued 
up to the fall of 1828, when he removed to Martinsburg, Vir- 
ginia. In 1829, he was united in marriage to the daughter 
of Richard Ragan, Esq., of Hagerstown, Maryland. His 
brother William dying in 1833, he settled permanently in 
Hagerstown, where his many accomplishments of head and 

3tJ0 



CHARLES MACGILL, M. D. 361 

heart won for him higli position as a leading citizen. He led 
or assisted in many public undertakings. He assisted in 
establishing the " Hagerstown Mail," in 1828, and subse- 
quently that of the " JMartinsburg Republican." He was 
appointed by President Van Buren a Visitor to West Point, 
in 1839, and was, in 1840, a State Elector on the ticket of 
^Martin Van Buren, in the Presidential contest of that year. 
He was aj^pointed by Governor Philip Francis Thomas, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the 24th Regiment, Maryland Militia, and 
upon the death of Colonel Robertson, then commanding. Gov- 
ernor Thomas G. Pratt commissioned him Colonel. His rank 
was afterward raised by Governor Ligon to that of Major- 
General of the Maryland Militia, Fourth Division. For seve- 
ral years, Dr. Macgill resided quietly at Hagerstown, devoting 
his time and talents to his increasing practice, and the care 
and education of a large family. 

In 18G1, when the war broke out. Major Swan, a gallant 
son-in-law of Dr. Macgill, left for Virginia. His movement 
caused the family to be suspected. Each male member of it 
was constantly under the surveillance of Federal spies, and 
numerous indignities were oiFered their persons and property. 
Up to this time. Dr. Macgill had returned good for evil. 
In 1861, when General Patterson's army was encamped at 
Hagerstown, and some of his soldiers were injured by an 
accident, the Doctor attended them in a surgical capacity, 
and exerted his skill for their relief. At the same time, his 
residence was entered and searched, his private papers and 
correspondence violated, the bureaus and trunks of his wife 
and daughters broken open, and the sanctity of his home 
generally invaded, without warrant or authority. JS'ot with- 
standing these outrages upon an honorable gentleman and 
his family, a short time afterward, when General Patterson 
advanced into Virginia, leaving many of his sick in hospital at 
the Female Academy in Hagerstown, he requested Dr. Mac- 
gill to attend them, a request with which the Doctor readily 
complied, daily ministering to their necessities. 

About this time, Colonel Ely, of Ilarrisburg, Pennsylvania, 



362 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

was captured in Yirginia. A few days after tlie departure 
of Patterson's army, the Doctor was coming out of a bouse 
where he had been visiting a patient, when he was sur- 
rounded by a squad of soldiers, the Captain of which said he 
had orders to arrest him as a hostage for Colonel Ely, to be 
held until that officer should be given up by the " Rebels." 
The Doctor, with a good deal of hauteur and composure, 
remarked : " Why, gentlemen, I am a Major-General ; you 
cannot take and hold me for a Colonel." lie was soon 
released. General Patterson returned from Virginia to 
Maryland, and on the evening of the 30th of September, 
18G1, Macgill was at home with his family, when the rat- 
tling of sabres and the tramp of soldiers were heard. 

In a moment, a scpiad of soldiers entered his house, filed 
into the parlor, and stood in the presence of the man the 
military authorities professed to fear " more than any other 
in the State of Maryland." Said the leader of the squad: 
"Dr. Macgill, you are my prisoner." " By whose order? " 
inquired the Doctor. The reply was : " By order of Colonel 
Kenly, who has instructions from the Secretary of State." 
The following is a copy of the order : 

(Indorsed.) 
" Governor Seward, confidential letter. Eec'd Sept. 28th. Ans. 
Sept. 29tb. Orders given to Colonel Kenly, Williamsport, Sept. 
29th." 

(Copy.) 

" Department of State, 
Washington, September 21, 1861. . 
"Major-General N. P. Banks, Darnestown, Md.: 

" Creneral: If you can arrest Dr. Charles McGill, of Ilagerstown, 
Mai-yland, or cause him to be arrested and sent to Fort McHenry, 
to be thence conveyed to Fort Lafayette, let it be done. 
" I am, veiy respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) William H. Seward." 

(Indorsed.) 
"Colonel Kenly, on the arrest of Dr. Macgill, answered Oct. 
3d, same day of its receipt." 



CHAELES MACGILL, M. D. 363 

(Copy.) 

" Headquarters, Williamsport, 
September 30, 1861. 
'Major-General !N". P. Banks, Commanding Division : 

" General: Dr. Macgill is now a prisoner in my camp. If one 
man can be dangerous, he is the man. I shall send him direct 
to Fort McHenry by Captain Waltemeyer, of my regiment. He 
will be there to-morrow night. 

" With the highest regard, 

"John E. Kenly, Col. 1st Md. Eeg't." 

Tlie witliin-named Waltemeyer^ who carried out this order, 
had been tried and convicted in the Baltimore County Crim- 
inal Court for whipinng a woman, afterward imrdoned and com- 
missioned by Governor Hicks. 

Mr. Seward's " little bell " had been touched again, and 
Dr. Charles Macgill was the victim this time. A detailed 
squad of eighty-five Pennsylvania Home Guards, under the 
command of one Captain Saul, surrounded his house. 

The Doctor accepted the situation, recognized himself a 
prisoner of state, and prepared to accompany his captors. 
His wife being ill up stairs, he asked permission to visit and 
bid her farewell. Not supposing that such a humane request 
would be denied him, he had started on his way when the 
command was given to " stop him." A number of privates 
now advanced to seize the prisoner, when he turned upon them 
and dashed two of them down the stairway. This provoked a 
desperate struggle. Dr. Charles Macgill, Jr., now came to the 
assistance of his father. Miss Macgill, a daughter, who had 
just returned from riding, and was equipped in a riding habit, 
and carried in her hand an ivory-headed riding-whip, came 
to the rescue and bravely defended her brother, who had re- 
ceived a sabre-cut in the neck. At this Juncture the soldiers 
drew their sabres and revolvers on Miss Macgill, and but for the 
timely interference of Captain Saul, the consequences might 
have been not only serious but tragical. The Captain ordered 
the arrest of both father and son, and they were carried 



364 AMERICAN EASTILE. 

away to Camp Banks, uear Williamsport. Saul reported 
with his prisoners to Colonel Kenly, commanding, who, swell- 
ing with importance, ordered the release of the son, as his 
arrest was not contemplated in the order. Dr. Maegill was 
then quartered in a tent which was guarded, the guards keep- 
ing a light burning all night. 

The next morning he was placed in an army wagon and 
taken back to Hagerstown. The military must have feared 
an attempt at rescue, for the road for six miles was lined with 
blue uniforms, and extra precautions taken against a dash 
from the "Eebels " of Hagerstown and Washington County. 
At Hagerstown, the distinguished state prisoner was received 
by another body of soldiery, and being placed on the cars, 
was taken to Chambersburg, and thence to Baltimore. At 
Baltimore, a company of soldiers was in waiting at the depot, 
the phantom of a Rebel rescue having likewise disturbed the 
imagination of the military commanders at that place. A 
coach was in waiting also, and Dr. Maegill, being hastily 
hustled into a seat with the guards, was driven ofi* to Fort 
McHenry. 

Here he was contined in a cell next to that occupied by 
" Garrona " Thomas, and Messrs. Glenn and Johnson, of Bal- 
timore. 

Colonel Morris, the commandant of the Fort, refused to 
permit his new prisoner to dine with these gentlemen, but 
left him in solitary confinement. He permitted his friends to 
visit him, however, and he was treated kindly. The com- 
mandant was by nature and education austere, and a stickler 
for rules and discipline. After five days' imprisonment in 
Fort McHenry, the steamer from Annapolis, with the Hat- 
teras prisoners, touched at the Fort, and he was booked for 
Fort Hamilton, New York Harbor, and thence was trans- 
ferred to Fort Lafayette, where he found congenial compan- 
ionship in the company of many other state prisoners from 
IMaryland, other States of the United States, and the then 
Confederate States. Lieutenant Wood, the officer in com- 
mand at Fort Lafayette, was one of those who held his ap- 



CHARLES MACGILL, M. D. 365 

pointment through the favor of Mrs. Liucohi, the " Rosy- 
Empress " of the White House. He had shown her and her 
family great attention on the occasion of the memorable trip 
from Harrisburg to Washington, before the inauguration of 
Lincoln, and he received his reward in the appointment to 
the command of a Government Bastile. Wood was a man 
of cruel heart, low instincts, and despicably mean principles. 
About the last of October, 1861, the Hatteras officers and 
state prisoners, including Dr. Macgill, Commander Earron, 
and others, were transported from Fort Lafayette to Fort 
Warren. 

The steamer " State of Maine," on board of which the 
prisoners were shipped, was not seaworthy, having been pro- 
nounced so by Captain Berry, of the steamer Columbia. 
For the eleven hundred men on board, the provisions were 
insufficient in quantity, and were unwholesome in quality. 
They consisted of rancid pork, hardtack, and salt meat. 
When well at sea, a plot was entered into among the prisoners 
to rise upon the guard, overpower them, together with the 
officers and crew, take possession of the steamer, and run her 
into Halifax. l!^o doubt was entertained about the success 
of the seizure ; but when it was considered among the leaders, 
Dr. Macgill included, that the vessel was unseaworthy, that 
8he was neither coaled nor provisioned for such a voyage, the 
"State of Maine" proceeded to her original destination, Fort 
Warren, in Boston Harbor, her officers none the wiser of her 
contemplated change of course and commanders. 

Colonel Dimick commanded at Fort Warren. He was a 
humane gentleman, and a great favorite with all the pris- 
oners. He was taken by surprise, and was totally unprepared 
for the accommodation or entertainment of the large number 
of additional guests so unceremoniously thrust upon his 
hospitality by the United States Government. The conse- 
quence was, the prisoners were shut up on board the ''State 
of Maine " until late the next day. In the mean time prepara- 
tions having been made in the Fort, they were landed. The 
Doctor was quartered in a lower casemate, without windows, 



366 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

and tliongli he was repeatedly offered better quarters by 
Colonel Dimick, he refused to vacate this dreary cell, for fear 
he might incommode some poor sickly fellow, he being hale 
and in excellent health. His cell-mates were Dr. Jeffreys, of 
Norfolk, Dr. Lindsay, Dr. Page, Thomas W. Hall of Balti- 
more, Wyatt, and others, all of them most companionable 
gentlemen. 

At this period there existed a great deal of sickness, espe- 
cially among the Southern prisoners, and through the kind- 
ness of Colonel Dimick, Dr. Macgill was permitted, at the * 
request of the sick, to take charge of their cases, the post 
supplying the medicine. Prison life is monotonous at best, 
and employment brings relief to mind and body. Dr. Mac- 
gill entered upon the duties with devotedness and alacrity. 
He did not wait to be summoned to the cot of the sick, but 
went the rounds of the sick-ward both day and night. His 
extensive knowledge of medicine made him a general favorite, 
and he was frequently called in by the post physician for 
consultation, particularly in dangerous cases. 

At Fort Lafayette the Doctor was offered his release, and 
the largest liberty, upon the single condition of his taking 
the oath, but it was declined. At Fort Warren the same 
offer was renewed, and refused, as before, only more em- 
phatically. When his imprisonment at Fort Warren had 
lengthened into the eighth or ninth month, Judge Pierpont 
and General Dix paid a visit to the Fort. Dix magnani- 
mously informed Macgill he could leave upon giving his 
parole of honor, whereupon the General was informed by the 
unyielding prisoner of state, that he would neither degrade 
himself in his own estimation, nor disgrace his record in the 
eyes of his people. He was a Southern man, was born such, 
and as such he preferred to die without a stain upon his soul 
in the next world, or his memory in this. This Roman firm- 
ness and adhesion to principle astonished Dix, who indulged 
in some apologetic remarks concerning the course of the 
Government. "There is nothing against you, Doctor, it is 



CHARLES MACGILL, M. D. 367 

true," lie continued, "Lut you have been arrested, and are 
now lield by the Government, and as this has engendered 
some hard feelings, perhaps, we must hold you still." It was 
upon the occasion of this interview that the Doctor discovered 
upon whose accusation he had been arrested. It was upon 
the oath of three men, John Schleigh, Postmaster at Hagers- 
town, appointed by Lincoln as a reward for the betrayal of 
his neighbors, John Cook, a blacksmith, and one Robinson, 
a shoemaker. This was the first knowledge the Doctor had 
received as to who were his accusers, or to whom he was in 
debted for his fourteen months' enforced sojourn in Forts 
Lafayette and Warren. . 

Meanwhile, Dr. Macgill continued his philanthropic work at 
Fort "Warren, in the visitation and treatment of the sick, with 
the most gratifying results. On the occasion of a large body 
of exchanged ofiicers leaving the Fort, they drew up and 
placed in the hands of the Doctor a most honorable testimo- 
nial, recognizing in aftecting terms his worth, skill, and 
kindness. This testimonial, engrossed on broad parchment, 
was signed by every ofiicer who experienced medical treat- 
ment at his hands. This certificate, framed, now hangs in 
the Doctor's oflice, and he takes commendable and honest 
pride in calling to it the attention of visitors. We present 
the reader with a subjoined copy : 

" Fort "Warren, Mass., 
July 31, 1862. 
To Charles Macgill, M.D., of Hagerstown, Md., now a Prisoner 
of State at Fort Warren : 
"Your fellow-prisoners, confined with 3'ou for many months in 
this Bastile, have been too often indebted to your professional 
skill for relief from painful, and, in many cases, most dangerous 
illness; and in their social intercourse with you have found so 
much to admire, that they cannot, now on the eve of departure 
for their beloved countrj^, part without returning thanks and 
giving expression to their grateful acknowledgmenta of j^our 
disinterested conduct. 



368 



AMERICAN BASTILE. 



"Hoping that you may be speedily restored to the quiet pleas- 
ures of your happy home, 

"We are your friends. 

Jas. I. Odell, Col. 2r,th Tenn. V. 
Gautt, Lt.-Col. 9 Te.ia. Vol. 



J. C. Brown, Col. 3d Tenn. Yol. 
J. E. Bailey, Col. 49th Tenn. V. 

E. W. Gautt, Brig.-Gen., C. S. A. 
W. T. Glassell, Lieut., C. S. N. 
J. K. Mitchell, Comdt., C. S. N. 
A. M. De Brie, Lieut., C. S. N. 
H. Meyer, Paymaster, C. S. N. 
A. Heinman, Col. 10th Tenn. V. 
J. Jackson, Lt.-Col. 27th Ala. Y. 
R. K. McGavock, Lt.-Col. 11th 

Tenn. Yol. 
Ed. C. Cook, Col. 32d Tenn. Y. 
Lloyd Tilghman, Brig.-Gen., C. 

S. A. 
W. E. Baldin, Col. 14th Miss. 

Yol. 
W. M. Yorhies, Col. 48th Tenn. 

Yol. 
Alex. I. Brown, Col, 55th Tenn. 

Yol. 
W. L. Lowell, Lieut.-Col. 48th 

Tenn. Yol. 

F. M. Boons, Lieut.-Col. 26th 

Miss. Yol. 
J. M. Wills, Lieut.-Col. 3d Miss. 

Yol. 
S. Baron. Flag Officer, C. S. N. 
R. Fargutaison, Col. 41st Tenn. 

Yol. 
A. A. Hughes, Col. 2nh Ala. 

Yol. 
J. C. Cranberry, 11th Ya. Inf. 
M. M. Lellard, Col. 26th Tenn. 

Yol. 
N. F. Cheairs, Maj. 3d Tenn. 

Yol. 



G 

H. B. Lyon, Lieut.-Col. 8th Ky. 

Yol. 
Saml. K. Hays, Q. M., C. S. A. 
Robt. G. McClure, Lieut.-Col. 

41st Tenn. Yol. 
John Gregg, Col. Texas Yol. 
L. J. Clay, C. S. A., Gen. Buck- 

ner's Staff. 
A. G. Scott, Capt. and Q. M. 

14th Miss. Yol. 
W. L. Doss, Maj. 14th Miss. Y. 
C. B. Alexander, Col. 2d Mo. 

S. G. 
J. L. Gavin, Maj. 3d Ala. Batt. 

F. G. Miller, Maj. 41st Tenn. 

Yol. 
W. F. Singleton, C. S. A., Ky 
W. E. Rogers, Maj. 3d Minn. Y 
R. W. Johnson, Adj. 15th Ark. 

Yol. 
Thelson Youngblood, Lieut. C. 

S. Navy. 
John B. Sloan, Lt. and Adj. S. 

C. Rifles. 
J. Wilkinson, C S. K 
Jos. W. Boyle, C. S. N. 
Thos. H. Handy, Lt. Crescent 

Art. 
Alex. Mack, 3d Louis. Bat. 
P.LYNCHLEE,Maj.l5thAvk.R.Y. 

G. Waggoner, Lt.-Col. 10th Lou. 
W. F. EsTir, Capt. 2d Ky. Yols. 
H. C. Lockhart, Lt.-Col. 50tb 

Tenn. Yol. 



CHARLES MACGILL, M. D. 



569 



R. H. Simpson, Capt. lUh Va. 

Infantry. 
J. N. Galligher, Priv. Sec. Gen. 

Buckner. 
W. W. Mack ALL, Brig.-Gen., C. 

S. A. 
J. Turner, Maj. 30th Tenn. Vol. 
A. S. Hamilton, Lieut.-Col. 1st 

Miss. Vol. 
S. F. Parker, Maj. 26th Miss. V. 
A. Glaiden, Lt.-Col. 18th Tenn. 

Vol. 
H. B. Granberry, Col. Texas V. 
J. C. Palmer, Col. 18th Tenn. V. 
Edwd. Pendleton, Lieut.-Col. 3d 

La. Vol. 
J. F. Gray, Maj. 48th Tenn. V, 
F. A. Lynn, Maj. 49th Tenn. V. 
Morton Mayree, Lt.-Col. Uth 

Va. Vol. 
J. Rivers, Maj. 49th Ga. Vol. 
L. E. Brook, Paymaster, C. S. N. 
A. F. Warley, C. S. N. 



S. B. Buckner, Br.-Gen., C. S. A. 
John McGee, Col. I5th Ark. V. 
Beverly Kennow, Lt. Com. C. 

S.N. 
F. M. Harris, C. S. N. 
James H. Toombs, C. S. N. 
Saml. D. McChesney, Capt. 3d 

La. Bat. 
W. C. Whittle, Jr., Lt. C. S. N". 
J. W. Towers, Lt.-Col. 8th Geo. 

Vol. 
T. E. Stake, Lt. 2d Ky. Vols. 
Roger W. Hanson, Brig.-Gen. 

Ky. Vols. 
C. B. Robinson. 
R. H. Murphy, Lt.-Col. 30th 

Tenn. 
Calvin Jones, Adj. 32d Tenn. 

Vol. 
Louis Slaughter, Lt. Uth Va. 

Inf. 
T. B. MocKALL, Lt. and A. D. C 



Time wore on, and the Government began to \yeary of the 
care and keeping of its state guests. They became national 
elephants, exjjensive to keep, and not to l)e gotten rid of hon- 
orably. On the 26th of November, 1862, an order came to 
release certain of the state prisoners unconditionally, and 
Dr. Maegill and his Maryland compatriots were among the 
number restored to liberty. 

The following is a list of the discharged prisoners: 



Geo. p. Kane, 
Frank K. Howard, 
RoBT. Hull, 
Wm. Gatchell, 
Wm. H. Winder, 
24 



Geo. Wm. Brown, Charles Howard, 
Henry M. Garfield, Wm. G. Harrison, 
S. Teakle Wallis, Chas. Macgill, 
Thomas H. Hall, T. Parkin Scott. 
R. L. Cutter, 



370 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" The above-named persons are released, agreeable to the fol- 
lowing telegram. 

(Signed) J, Dimick, 

Col. 1st Artillery, Comd'g Post. 

" ' Washington, Nov. 26, 1862. 
" ' Col. J. Dimick, U. S. Army, Fort Warren, Boston : 

" ' 1'he Secretary of War dii'ects that 3^011 release all the Mary- 
land state prisoners, and also any other state prisoner that may 
be in your custody, and report names to this office. 

(Signed) E. D. Townsend, 

Assist. Adjt. Gen'L' 

"True copy. Fort AVarren, B. H., Nov. 27, 1862. 

J. Dimick, Col. 1st Art'y, Comd'g Post." 

From the Fort, they were forwarded to Boston, and there 
abandoned by the Government, without transportation to 
their homes, and very many of them without means. Dr. 
Macgill was among the more fortunate of the abandoned 
guests of the Government, turned so unceremoniously out- 
side the hospitable cloors of Fort "Warren, where, for months, 
it had. been the constant care of the Government to keep him 
from his family and. from his extensive practice. Upon 
reaching Baltimore, he was welcomed by his friends with an 
enthusiasm unbounded. He remained in Baltimore a few 
days, the guest of his hospitable friend, Thomas C. Jenkins, 
Esq., and then set out for that home from which he had been 
so ruthlessly dragged fourteen months before. He was met 
on the road by his old friends, in carriages, who took him 
from the public stage, and escorted him to his home, where 
many others were awaiting his arrival. 

Here, Cj^uietly resuming the practice of medicine and sur- 
gery, he remained until General Lee invaded Maryland, in 
the summer of 1863. His old spirit, unbroken by imprison- 
ment, began to stir the blood of the Macgills again. He felt 
as if he had been wronged, his rights disregarded, and the 
Government, to which he looked for protection, had become 



CHARLES MACGILL, M. D. 371 

his oppressor. His long, unjust imprisonment in American 
Bastiles had alienated his sympathies and love from a Govern- 
ment for which, hefore, he would have sacrificed his life. At 
this auspicious day, when it looked as if Lee had effected a 
permanent lodgment in Maryland, Dr. Macgill established, 
at Hagerstown, in that State, a hospital for the sick and 
wounded, and received into it hundreds of the Confederates, 
wounded at Gettysburg and the battles in Maryland. He 
superintended it in person, and his noble example aroused to 
active duty the whole Southern sympathy of Washington 
County ; the ladies', particularly, whose devotion was beyond 
all praise. When General Lee was compelled to fall back, 
and place the Potomac between his army and the enemy, the 
Doctor knew he could no longer remain in his native State 
with safety. 

Duty also drew him, and he then and there cast his lot 
with the fortunes of the Southern Confederacy, then passing 
through the black eclipse of that dreadful slaughter on the 
heights of Gettysburg. Packing a case of instruments, 
equipped in his every-day garments, he reported to General 
Lee, and with him fell back to Virginia. But his instru- 
ments were hardly idle an hour, for many days of dreadful 
agony and suffering to hundreds of wounded. At Williams- 
port, Martinsburg, or wherever a wounded Confederate was to 
be found, there was Dr. Macgill, with his lint and bandages, 
his knife and saw, if necessary. When Lee had taken up 
his new position, and all danger of pursuit had passed, he 
went to Richmond and met President Davis, and without 
any solicitation on his part was appointed by Davis full 
Surgeon in the Army of Northern Virginia. In the next 
campaign, that of 1864, Dr. Macgill signally distinguished 
himself and rendered most efficient service. At the bat- 
tles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania he was constantly 
with the Army of JSTorthern Virginia, and was of invaluable 
service to them in many respects, unto the end. He sur- 
rendered with the remnant of that army at Appomattox 
Court-house, having contended like a good physician to the 



O/U AMERICAN BASTILE. 

last, that " while there "s life there 's hope." Knowing that 
he would not he permitted to return to his home in Mary- 
land, unless he asked a ]iardon, which he would not do, he 
identified his interests entirely with those of Virginia, lie 
now resides iu i^ichmond with his family, in the enjoyment 
of a most lucrative and growing practice, and drives in his 
gig the same gray horse upon whose back he sui'rendered 
m April, 1865. . 

Dr. ]\Jaegill is sixty-two years of age, of a ph>/.<i'pic not 
unlike that of the late General AV infield Scott, broad shoul- 
ders, large head, smooth-shaven face, features full and bold in 
outline, indicative of an iron will and energy, and an intel- 
lect of force and method. He has lived what he himself 
terms a well-ordered and careful life, and as a conseqaence, 
his health and vigor at sixty-two is as well preserved as that 
of the majority of men at forty. 

At the same moment when Dix was apologizing for the 
unjust incarceration of the distinguished state prisoner in 
Fort AVarren, the Government, through other otKcials, was 
acting in quite a ditierent manner. His house in Hagers- 
town, where his wife and daughters resided, was guarded, 
and no one permitted to enter or leave it without permission. 
Articles of food were prohibited. Meals prepared by the 
servants were taken and eaten by the guards, and petty indig- 
nities continually oft'ered them. AVhen the army fell back 
after the battle of Gettysburg, the house was surrounded and 
taken possession of by Kilpatrick's men, who were looking 
Ibr the Doctor to hang him, as their officers said. An officer 
asked his daughter where her father was — at the same time 
putting a pistol to her head^ and saying, "Z?^ the gods' nmnan 
as you are^ I have a mind to blow your brains out." She put the 
pistol aside and said, " When you behave like a gentleman, 
I will answer j'ou ; " and afterward remarked, " The Doctor 
has gone with Lee's army." But they would not believe it, 
and so anxious were they to hang him that they took posses- 
sion of the house again, and held Mrs. Macgill and her 
daughters prisoners for five weeks. During the time of 



CHARLES MACGILL, M. D. 373 

their imprisonment, an order was sent tliem by General 
" Baldy " Smith to prepare to leave for the South. The order 
was not carried out, as Mrs. Macgill and her little son were 
ill at the time, and a Federal doctor testified that she could 
not be removed. 

Then an order came from him, to take two of her daugh- 
ters, Mrs. Robert Swan and Alice, across the lines, as the 
neighbors had sworn that a Federal soldier, who had been 
killed in front of her house in a fight the day before, had 
been shot by them from the windows. General Smith after- 
ward gave the names of the informers to a member of Dr. 
Macgill 's family. They were neighl)ors, and, although mem- 
bers of church, had perjured themselves. Permission was 
asked of General Smith to allow the daughters to remain 
twenty-four hours with their mother, but he positively re- 
fused. Their trunks were packed and every article examined 
by one Lieutenant Mullenburg of Smith's staiF, afterward 
Brevet Major of 5th Artillery. 

They were taken to Baltimore in charge of a guard, then 
taken before Colonel Fish, acting Provost Marshal, (who was 
afterward sent to the Albany Penitentiary.) He treated 
them in a most insulting manner. Their trunks were exam- 
ined, and they were confined all night under guard in a filthy 
garret filled with rats and vermin. The next day they were 
sent with a guard to Winchester, Virginia. They were 
obliged to pay all expenses, or their trunks would have been 
taken from them. Mrs. Macgill's house was searched every 
day for two weeks by Kilpatrick's men, carpets torn up, 
locks broken, ostensibly for the purpose of finding arms or 
flags, (which they never did,) but their real object was pil- 
fering. 

The wife of Dr. Charles Macgill, Jr., came from Shep- 
pardstown, Virginia, to visit her mother-in-law, bringing 
with her a child four years old, and an infant of six weeks. 
They had not been in Ilagerstown two hours when a squad 
of soldiers came to the house and arrested her on the charge, 
by a neighbor, that she had brought a mail from the South 



374 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

with her. She was torn from her children, put into a hnggy 
with a soldier, and sent to Harper's Ferry, where she arrived 
late at night. She was then taken before General Sullivan, 
who, when he heard her statement, was shocked at such 
cruelty, and sent her back to her children the next morning, 
in an ambulance, with one of his staff. But the persecutions 
of Mrs. Macgill had not yet ceased. 

In 1864, a squad of soldiers entered her house, with an 
order from the Secretary of War, ordering her and her daughters 
to leave their house, giving them twenty minutes to collect 
some clothing. When they were preparing to depart, one of the 
soldiers was observed filling his pockets with spoons, which 
her daughter took from him. The soldiers kept possession 
of the house several weeks, stole many valuable things, and 
Mrs. Macgill only succeeded in getting them back through 
the influence of a Union friend and Francis Thomas, a mem- 
ber of Congress from that district. Such were some of the 
persecutions to which Dr. Charles Macgill and his family 
w^ere sulgected. Envy, malice, cruelty, and rapine were at 
the bottom of it all. "While he was ministering to the wants 
of the Federal army, the Federal Government was laying 
its oppressive hands upon him and his family, until, finally, 
more despotic than the Xing of Dahomey, it drove them 
from the land of their birth. 



GEIs^ERAL GEORGE W. JONES. 

rpHE following sketcli of General George W. Jones we 
-*- extract from Lanman's " History of Congress," of 1859 : 
" Jones, George W., born at Vincennes, Indiana, and gradu- 
ated at Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 1825. He 
was bred to the law, but ill health prevented him from prac- 
tising. He was Clerk of the United States District Court in 
Missouri in 1826 ; served as an aide-de-camp to General Henry 
Dodge in the Black Hawk war; was chosen Colonel of Mili- 
tia in 1832, subsequently Major-General — also as Judge. In 
1835' was elected Delegate to Congress from the Territory of 
Michigan, and served four years. In 1839 was appointed by 
President Van Buren Surveyor General of the Northwest — 
was removed in 1841, on account of his politics, but re-ap- 
pointed by J'resident Polk, and remained in the office until 
1849. In 1848 he was elected an United States Senator from 
Iowa for six years, and re-elected in 1852, and is now Chair- 
man of the Committee on Pensions, and on Enrolled Bills, 
and a member of the Committee on Territories." General 
Jones's term of service, as Senator, expired on the 4th of 
March, 1859. 

When his old political and personal friend. President Bu- 
chanan, with whom, as Delegate and Senator, he had served 
for several years in Congress, unknown to him, or to any 
friend, save the members of his Cabinet, nominated him to the 
Senate as United States Minister Eesident at Bogota, the 
nomination, at the instance of Senators Ilarlin and Grimes, 
of Iowa, political opponents, was unanimously confirmed, 
without a reference to the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
as is usual, the rules of the Senate having been unanimously 
suspended for the purpose. 

375 



376 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

General Jones, being informed of the high compliment 
paid him by the Administration and the Senate, immediately 
declined an acceptance of the same. But on his return home 
to Dubuque, Iowa, he was induced by his family and friends 
(his physicians at Washington City and Dubuque concurring 
therein, as a means of restoring his health,) to signify to the 
President that he would recall his letter declining the honor- 
able position, if agreeable to that officer. 

Mr. Buchanan, believing that the General would regret his 
refusal to accept the position, purposely refused to make any 
other appointment, though often and earnestly urged to do 
so, by applicants for the mission. He directed General Cass, 
the Secretary of State, to notify General Jones of his re-ap- 
pointment, requesting him at the same time to return to 
Washington for his instructions, and to proceed to the Lega- 
tion at Bogota, which he very promptly did. Sailing from 
JSTew York on the 7th of Ma}-, 1859, and receiving at the. 
time highly complimentary notices from the press, and, as he 
rode down the bay, a salute from the guns at Fort Lafayette, 
little did he then think that ere three years should elapse he 
would spend three . long, wearisome months in that Fort, a 
victim to the perfidy of William H. Seward. 

General Jones having successfully arranged the important 
international question which hurried him to Bogota, under 
the orders of Secretary Cass, obtained a leave of absence, and 
returned home in the summer of 1860, where he received at 
the hands of all parties — the whole community participating 
therein — a magnificent ovation, such as had scarcely ever 
been tendered to any public servant on returning to his home. 
Fublic nieetings of the citizens and of the City Council were 
called by order of the Mayor, then, and still, a leading, 
Avealthy, and influential Republican, to make arrangements 
for his reception, the Mayor and Council crossing the Missis- 
sippi to welcome him on his arrival. On landing on the 
wharf at his home, he was met and escorted by a committee 
of reception on the part of the people, when Mr. Bissell, the 
late Republican Attorney General of Iowa, as orator of the 



GENERAL GEOEGE W. JONES. 377 

day, made an eloquent and pathetic reception address. A 
long procession of military, and citizens on foot, in carriages, 
and on horseback, escorted the General to his residence in the 
suburbs, on the Blufi:', when he was again the recipient of six 
or seven other formal addresses by the commanders of volun- 
teer companies and others of the legal profession. 

General Jones returned to his mission in South America 
in the fall of 1860 ; and, finding, the country there involved 
in civil war, which broke out during his absence, he made 
the most strenuous efforts, with both parties engaged in it, 
to procure a reconciliation and cessation of hostilities, as his 
despatches, on file in the State Department at Washington, 
fully show. Those despatches are conclusive that he would 
have succeeded, in all probability, in making peace between 
the contending parties, but that the Government, or Conser- 
vative party, as it was called, could not brook the idea of 
treating with the rebels, or Liberals, as the other party was 
designated. The latter part}^, under General Mosquera, tri- 
umphed over the Government, and took possession of the city 
of Bogota on the 18th of July, 1861. 

The correspondence of the Minister Eesident Jones with 
the State Department, under Secretary Cass, first, and Sew- 
ard, his successor, shows that he made use of great tact and 
energy, if not ability, in his efforts to procure, by compro- 
mise concessions, an amendment of the laws or of the Consti- 
tution, to bring about a peace even before the expenditure of 
any great amount of money or eftusion of blood, for which ef- 
forts he was highly complimented by all parties at the Court 
to which he w^as accredited, as well as by both Administra- 
tions of the Government at Washington. 

General Jones was recalled by Secretary Seward as early 
as March, immediately after the induction of that function- 
ary into the Secretaryship. The letter of recall itself, being of 
the most complimentary character, much surprised the Presi- 
dent of the Republic — Mosquera — when he read it. lie re- 
marked, as he did so, that it was strangely contradictory, 
indeed, thus to treat a public servant, acknowledged in that 



378 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

letter, as lie was, to have been faithful and efficient, and by 
both Governments. But, as the letter said, the President 
and his Cabinet had "their friends to reward, and their 
political enemies to punish," and accordingly the fiat was 
sent forth. 

General Jones did not reach the Federal City until Decem- 
ber 5, 1861, his successor not having arrived at Bogota, to 
relieve him, until the Ist of I^ovember preceding. 

On his arrival at Washington, the General was met first 
by Secretary Seward, at the entrance of the State Depart- 
ment, and greeted in the most affectionate and cordial man- 
ner, in the presence of a regiment of infantry from Cayuga 
County, New York, and some hundreds of citizens and 
strangers then present. Mr. Seward conducted him to the 
President's mansion, both being followed by the regiment 
and people, where, after President Lincoln had addressed the 
troops en route South, Mr. Seward, formally and in an im- 
posing manner, introduced General Jones to the Chief Magis- 
trate as "Our friend, General Jones, just returning as Min- 
ister from Bogota." Mr. Lincoln, being equally warm and 
friendly in his reception of the General, said that he recol- 
lected forming a short but pleasant acquaintance with him at 
Springfield, some fifteen years before ; which Mr. Jones not 
recollecting, the President invited him to call on him the 
next evening, at eight o'clock, when he would explain the 
circumstance of their first introduction to each other. 

The following evening he called, and was kindly and re- 
spectfully treated by Mr. Lincoln, in the presence of the 
" Blair family," as he (Lincoln) termed F. P. Blair, Senior 
and Junior, and the Postmaster General. There were other 
gentlemen present, among them Mr. George D. Prentice, of 
the " Louisville Journal," who was endeavoring to efiect the 
release from imprisonment of Dr. Gwin, late Senator from 
California, Mr. Calhoun Brenham, his brother-in-law, and 
Mr. Brent, they having been arrested by General Sumner, on 
board the Steamer " Uncle Sam," at Panama, ISTew Granada, 
in November, 1861, and were then prisoners in Fort Lafay- 



GENEEAL GEORGE W. JONES. 379 

ette. These arrests were made in violation of the laws of 
our own country, of nations, and of the treaty with iSTew 
Granada, 

"Oh! what a tangled web we weave, 
When first we practise to deceive." 

"While at Washington, Secretary Seward gave General 
Jones a diplomatic dinner, and extended to him other and 
the usual civilities between old friends. Strange and incom- 
prehensible as it may appear, Seward, the Talleyrand of the 
day, was all the while meditating the arrest and imprison- 
ment of his old friend and companion, to whom he had for 
years extended acts of hospitality and civility, just as he 
had done toward our returning Minister Plenipotentiary to 
France, the Hon. Charles J. Faulkner, of Virginia, who, as 
he too was on his way to join his family, was arrested and 
immured in Fort Lafayette. 

General Jones remained in Washington for the settlement 
of his accounts as Minister returning home, until the 19th 
of December, when he took leave of his old Senatorial 
associate. Secretary Seward, who expressed an apparently 
earnest hope that he might have a speedy and pleasant trip, 
find his lamily well, etc. 

On his arrival in New York city, General Jones was 
arrested, at the " ]^ew York Hotel," by Detective Farley, 
on the following telegram from Secretary Seward : 

'■Washington City, D. C, December 19, 1861. 
"Hon. George W. Joues, late Senator in Congress from Iowa, 
and late Minister to Bogota, leaves here this afternoon for New 
York. Arrest him, and send him to Fort Lafayette. 

(Signed) Wm. H. Seward." 

This despatch was addressed to Kennedj^, the Superin- 
tendent of Police, and was all the authority which he said 
he had for his arrest. General Jones availed himself of per- 
mission to write a letter to his wife, who was to meet him 
in the city, on the 25th instant, detailing his arrest, etc. 
Telegraphic despatches were sent to the President and the 



380 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Iowa cleleo-ation in Cono-ress, solicitino; a hearino; at A\"asli- 
ington, or elsewhere. He received no reply to either des- 
patch, nor was he ever informed of the cause of his arrest, 
further than a conversation with a friend, after his release, 
enlightened him. This friend had a conversation with 
Seward, in which the latter remarked, " that nothing had 
ever pained him so much as to have been compelled to arrest 
and imprison General Jones, but that it was necessary to 
make examples of the heads of families and parties some- 
times." 

He evidently intended to punish the Greneral, because one 
of his sons had gone South in April, 1861, although unknown 
to him, and while he was five thousand miles away. He 
knew nothing of the fall of Fort Sumter, or the commence- 
ment of civil war, until in May, 1861. 

He was taken in a carriage to Fort Hamilton, thence to 
Fort Lafayette, wliere he was conveyed from the sally-port 
to the Commandant's office. He was required to divest him- 
self of his clothing, and give up his purse and its contents, his 
watch, pocket-knife, pencil, and even his gold studs, and the 
sleeve and collar buttons on his shirt. His trunks were kept at 
the Police headquarters in New York, where they were ran- 
sacked, and his private papers, and letters from his wife and 
children, examined and read. The same thing was done at 
Forts Hamilton and Lafayette, before he received them. 

On entering the casemate, the General was furnished with 
a dirty straw pallet and an iron bedstead, without sheet, 
blanket, or pillow. The food furnished the prisoners was 
meagre in quantity and poor in quality, and inferior to that 
furnished to the' garrison. 

They would have suffered for the necessaries of life, but for 
the humane attention of such charitable. Christian ladies as 
Mrs. George A. Gelston, of Fort Hamilton ; Mrs. Sullivan 
and Mrs. Lucy Dodge Leadbeater, of JSTew York ; Mrs. Dr. 
Cuthbert, (whose husband was a prisoner in the Fort ;) Mrs. 
Austin Dale and Mrs. ISTorris, of Baltimore, and many others 
like them from Philadelphia, who sent them tea, coffee, sugar, 



GENERAL GEORGE W. JONES. 381 

and meats, and medicines, as well as bedclothes and wearing 
apparel. These ladies received no return but the prayers of 
the prisoners and the consciousness of having done noble acts. 

The General is confident that the treatment which he and 
his fellow-prisoners endured in the Fort was worse than that 
shown to prisoners in penitentiaries, confined for the most 
diabolical offences. 

General Jones and his fellow-prisoners were required to 
sweep and scrub the brick floors of their casemates, or allow 
-them to remain as filthy as they found them. They had to 
carry in their wood and coal, after obtaining the necessary 
permission from the sergeant, empty their slops, and perform 
still more menial offices. He learned to cook and wash. The 
other prisoners desired to do it for him, but the General 
refused, saying that he was born in the West, and would 
share their privations with them. 

When not dreaming of giving oflfence, the}^ were addressed 
in the most ofl:ensive language by the soldiers as they passed 
them, (always by permission,) in going to their meals, to the 
cistern for water, to the wood or coal pile, or to the rear. A 
musket with a fixed bayonet was sometimes placed at tlieir 
breasts. 

< On one occasion, as General Jones was passing from his 
casemate diagonally across the court or area of the Fort, the 
sentry in a grufif and insulting tone commanded him to 
" halt," and demanded to know where he was going, present- 
ing, as he spoke, his musket and bayonet at a charge. The 
General replied, " To the Kentucky room, to take some med- 
icine to a sick friend, and by permission of Lieutenant C. 0. 
Wood." The guard then ordered him to pass around the 
other way, saying, " I have a mind to give you the contents 
of this," alluding to his gun. On another occasion, he heard 
a soldier, on guard, curse a gentleman in the water-closet, 
because he did not sit down upon the bench or plank, which 
was literally covered with mud and filth. The soldier en- 
forced his order by presenting his bayonet at the prisoner's 
breast; and had he not obeyed, he would either have beeu 



382 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

shot or run throiigli, for the brutality of the soldiers scarce 
knew anj bounds. 

We give but one more incident, althougli we could men- 
tion many. A few days before the General left the Fort, 
Mr. Burnett, of Kentucky, was placed in the guard-house, 
merely because he walked to and from the rear with Mr. Coe, 
of Baltimore, with whom he was engaged in conversation. 
The General was intimately acquainted with Burnett, who 
had been a class-mate of one of his sons at the Kentucky 
]\Iilitary Institute. Hence he dared incur the displeasure of 
the soldiers, by appealing in his behalf to the commander, 
who, after much solicitation, released the prisoner on the fol- 
lowing morning. These brutal actions of the soldiery were 
evidently encouraged by Lieutenant C. O. Wood, a favorite 
of Mr. Lincoln's, and one of his appointees. He was a very 
depraved man, and totall}^ unfit for the grade of a lieutenant. 
His character is well delineated by Cowper, as having 

"A sordid mind, 
Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit 
To be the tenant of man's noble form." 

General Jones was discharged on the 22d of February, 
1862, after an incarceration of sixty-four 'days. We are un- 
able to give the real cause of the arrest and imprisonment 
of the subject of this notice, for, at the time, one of the New 
York newspapers, in the confidence of the Government, 
stated that it was because of treasonable letters written from 
Bogota to Jefferson Davis, and other Southern men, giving 
them aid and comfort. Another averred that it was because 
he (Jones) had sent two of his sons to the South to fight for 
secession. The facts are as follows : General Jones had 
formed his first acquaintance with Mr. Davis, in 1820-21, at 
Transylvania University, Kentucky. They afterward served 
together in the Black Hawk war in 1832, in Congress in 
1838, and were room-mates while in Washington — were 
brother Senators previous to and after Davis was Secretary 
of War under President Pierce. They corresponded through 



GENERAL GEORGE W. JONES. 383 

a period of tliirty-five years, and continued to do so until 
after the inaus-uration of civil war. While Minister to 
Bogota, letters were passing and repassing between them, in 
many of which he stoutly denounced secession as disintegra- 
tion, and subversive of our republican institutions. The last 
letter he received from Davis was dated January 10, 1861, 
and was in answer to one of his own, soliciting the co-opera- 
tion of Mr. Davis in having his son, William A. B. Jones, 
reinstated to a lieutenancy in Colonel Joseph E. Johnston's 
cavalry regiment, wdiich position he had resigned through 
the mistaken advice of the Surgeon of the regiment. The 
disloyal letter which Mr. Seward avers he dropped in the 
State Department, when closing his accounts, and which he 
published in a mutilated form, giving garbled extracts which 
gave it another meaning, contained his last admonition to 
Mr. Davis of the fallacy of secession, which was then threat- 
ened by the South, and pleading for them " to remain in 
the Union, and, if necessary, to Jight for their rights under the 
Constitution in the Union," further pledging himself and sons 
to stand by and fight with them, if necessary. This letter 
he sent, with his other correspondence, through the State De- 
partment, as he had done when General Cass was Secretary 
of State, and which was the custom, and one that General 
James Watson Webb, his (Seward's) bosom friend, availed 
himself of, when arrested for debt in I^ew York, previously 
to his departure as Minister to Rio de Janeiro, under Seward's 
appointment. The contents of this letter, and other letters 
written by General Jones to his family and friends, before he 
was aware that civil war had broken out in the United 
States, (a fact which he did not learn until the latter part of 
jVlay, 1861,) were violated by the Secretary, and, after being 
read, were, as it is supposed, tiled away in the archives of 
the State Department, as trophies of the duplicity of a man, 
who, in his official capacity, as Secretary of State, by his 
correspondence with, and subserviency to crowned heads, 
did more than all his predecessors to lower the dignity and 
honor of the United States. 



384 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

c 

His sycophantic and cowardly course in the Trent affair, 
and with the Emperor of France, particularly in reference to 
the ]\Ioin'oe doctrine, as applied to the late war in Mexico, 
his deceptive course toward Fenianism, by first inducing the 
march into Canada, and then by shamefully, ignorantly, and 
dastardly permitting American-born and naturalized cidzena 
to be imprisoned and executed, under the British Govern- 
ment, should consign him to disgrace, as history will hia 
name, to " fester in the infamy of years." 

" In friendship false, implacable in hate ; 
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state ; 
To compass this, the triple bond he broke, 
The pillars of the public safety shook." 



SAMUEL H. BU^^DY, M.D. 

DR. SAAIUEL H. BUNDY was born near tlie Cumberland 
River, in Smith County, Tennessee, on the 8th of April, 
1822. His father was a respectable farmer, of French de- 
scent, who emigrated from ISTorth Carolina to that State at 
an early period of its settlement. He labored on the farm 
with his father until about his sixteenth year, when he was 
sent to Wirt College, then a flourishing school near Castalian 
Springs, in his native State, where he received a substantial 
education. After leaving college, he entered upon the study 
of the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1846 ; but having 
a dislike for that profession, he soon abandoned it, and studied 
medicine, which, being more congenial to his tastes and 
sympathies, he has closely followed to the present time. 

In 1852, he removed with his family to Williamson County, 
Illinois, where he has since resided, and held a prominent 
place in the political and educational affairs of his adopted 
State. Having been reared near the residence of the im- 
mortal Jackson, and his father having served under him 
through the War of 1812, he early became a warm admirer 
of the policy of that eminent statesman, and, of course, iden- 
tified with the Democratic party ; and being a speaker of 
considerable fluency and power, he has frequently taken the 
stump in defence of its principles. 

In the canvass of 1860, he took a deep interest, and warned 
the people, wherever he addressed them, with almost pro- 
phetic accuracy, of the terrible calamity that would result 
from the elevation of a sectional candidate to the Presidency. 
During the campaign, he dealt many heavy blow^s against 
the party re2:)resented by Mr. Lincoln ; but being decidedly 
conservative in feeling, he neither held extreme views, nor 

25 385 



386 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

gave utterance to tlie violent language indulged in by such 
men as Logan, Kuykendall, Palmer, and others. And in 
1861, wlieu the country was wild with excitement, while 
these men were stirring up the people of Central and South- 
ern Illinois by inflammatory harangues, denunciatory of the 
Abolition party and the coercive policy of Mr. Lincoln, Dr. 
Bundy was pleading for moderation and the adoption of 
the compromise measures proposed by Crittenden, Douglas, 
and others, as the best means of quieting the popular mind, 
until "sober, second thought" should bring about recon- 
ciliation, witliout the effusion of blood. When a large con- 
course of citizens assembled at Carbondale, for the purpose 
of driving away the troops stationed at Big Muddy Bridge, 
on the Illinois Central Railroad, (having been excited almost 
to frenzy by the reports spread through the country that they 
had been sent there by Abolitionists, without authority,) Dr. 
Bundy hastened to the place, and spent the day in disabusing 
their minds, and urging them to refrain from violence, and 
quietly disperse to their homes; which they finally did. 
For doing this, he was cursed for " a white-livered coward," 
by some who were urging on the strife, who have since be- 
come ranting " Union men," and cursed him soundly as a 
" Copperhead." 

Soon after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, General 
Logan, who had, in his speeches during the summer of 1861, 
" wished that his hand might wither if he ever took up arms 
against his Southern brethren," returned from Congress and 
commenced raising a regiment ; alleging, in his addresses to 
his old constituents, that "it was necessary for Democrats to 
get hold of the muskets, and save the Government from the 
invasion of the Southerners on the one hand, and the corrupt 
and illegal policy of the Abolitionists on the other; that Mr. 
Lincoln and his party had neither the military skill and 
bravery necessary to conduct the war successfully, nor the 
statesmanship and honesty to administer the Government 
legally ; and between them and the Rebels, our form of gov- 
ernment was in great danger of being subverted." And he 



SAMUEL H. B U N D Y, M. D. 387 

exhorted his friends to "join him in forcing the Rebels into 
obedience, when they would all turn around and whip out 
the Abolitionists." This sudden "change of front" pro- 
duced the most intense excitement. From this time forward, 
men, who had been life-long friends, began to distrust and 
suspect each other ; and the people were distracted by divi- 
sions and suspicions. Troops were quartered at Cairo and 
various points along the borders of the State, and detach- 
ments scoured the country in all directions, foraging upon and 
insulting the citizens. The country swarmed with detectives, 
spies, and secret reporters. With many honorable exceptions, 
the Republicans became informers ; and every political or 
even religious difference, or personal spite, was made the oc- 
casion of a secret mission to the Provost Marshal at some mil- 
itary station, with a report of disloyalty against the offender. 
Citizens of all classes and professions were arrested, searched, 
and cast into the various guard-houses ; generally, without 
knowing whom, when, or in what they had offended, or 
who were their accusers. Men, who would not have been 
believed on oath in any court where they were known, and 
could not have obtained credit for fifty cents at any country 
store, were made swift witnesses and instruments in inflict- 
ing untold miseries upon the most inoffensive and valuable 
citizens. 

Such was the state of affairs when the August term of the 
Circuit Court commenced at Marion, in 1862, Hon. Andrew 
D. Duff presiding. Dr. Bundy was appointed foreman of 
the grand jury, but, after serving two days, was excused, in 
consequence of the illness of his family, three children being 
dangerously sick with whooping cough and diphtheria. Soon 
after he left, two men, alleging they were Government Detec- 
tives, reached town, and, under orders from one Major Merrill, 
Provost Marshal at Cairo, arrested the Judge on the bench, 
and several members of the bar ; and inquired for the fore- 
man of the grand jury. On being informed that he was at 
home, they made some further arrests, and determined to 
call for him as they returned to Cairo. 



388 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

When they reached his house, August 14, he had gone 
to a neighbor's, to visit a sick child. On account of the ill- 
ness in his family, they yielded to the entreaties of Mrs. 
Bundy, and the assurances of Judges Duff, Allen, and Mul- 
key, that the Doctor would attend at Cairo. or elsewhere as 
soon as the condition of his family would permit, and con- 
cluded to go on with the gentlemen already in charge, and 
leave him at home for the time being. As soon as the Doc- 
tor returned to his house, he addressed a note to the Provost 
Marshal, stating the condition of his family, his fears that 
his children could not live, the absolute necessity of his pre- 
sence as a father and physician to care for them ; and from 
the depths of his affliction, appealing to his better nature, and 
his own tender family ties, he assured him that, as he was un- 
conscious of having violated any law, or done any man 
wrong, he would not hesitate to report at any point to'which 
he might be ordered by competent authority, as soon as the 
condition of his family would permit. But neither this note 
nor the statement of his officers as to the affliction of the 
Doctor's family, nor the assurances of the gentlemen they 
had in charge that he would attend as soon as he could leave 
his sick children, seemed to have any eftect on Merrill, who 
sharply reprimanded his subordinates, and ordered one of 
them (one Scott) to return and bring the Doctor to Cairo. 

On the 17th, death entered the family circle, and took for 
his victim a bright little boy, between six and seven years of 
age, whose remains the sorrowing parents followed to their 
resting-place at a church one and a half miles from their 
residence. As they were returning from the grave, they 
were met by Merrill's officer, who ordered the Doctor out of 
the carriage, containing his afflicted wife and other members 
of the family, into his own buggy, and hurried him otf to 
Cairo. Mrs. B. had, for many years, been in very feeble 
health, and was quite overcome with grief. The Doctor 
begged permission to accompany her home, and comfort her 
as far as possible ; to provide as best he could for the other 
children, who were in a most critical condition, and supply 



SAMUEL H. B U N D Y, M. D. 389 

himself with clothing and funds for his contemplated absence. 
But the officer was deaf to all entreaty ; alleging that his 
former lenity had been reproved, and he must reach Cairo 
that night. On arriving at Carbondale, where they were to 
take the cars for Cairo, his haste seemed to have ended ; and, 
leaving the Doctor in the sitting-room of the Union House, 
with orders to remain until called for, he strolled off into the 
town, and was absent until after midnight. 

The Doctor soon perceived that something of interest was 
going on in an adjoining room, as he could hear man}^ voices, 
and persons were continually passing in and out at the door, 
which was kept closed, and seemed to be guarded on the in- 
side. So, when night came on, as it was dark and misting 
rain, he stepped out on the pavement, and went to an open 
window, which permitted a full view of the persons and pro- 
ceediijgs within. A number of persons, with most of whom 
he was well acquainted, were engaged in preparing evidence 
against himself and the other gentlemen who had been 
arrested about the same time. Several men seemed to be 
present as witnesses, some of whom were total strangers to 
him ; others he knew to be of the lowest character, and all 
whom he recognized were political enemies. Dr. George L. 
Owen, originally from Ohio, an avowed Abolitionist, was 
acting as attorney, and drew out the testimony to his own 
liking ; while one Dick Dudding, an uns'^'.rupulous pettifog- 
ger, wrote down the statements in language suited to the 
purpose. The witnesses were all in the room together ; were 
all the political friends and allies of Owen and Dudding, who 
prompted such statements as they wished ; and when any 
testimony appeared favorable to the accused, it was rejected. 
When through the examination, they were sioorn to what Dud- 
ding had written^ toithout having it read, over. Only one man 
was observed to require his statement to be read before he 
would sign his name and be qualified to it, and then de- 
manded several changes to be made. 

In the mean time. Dr. Bundy had gone to the door, and 
asked permission to go in, as he perceived that they were 



390 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

taking^ evidence ascainst himself and others. He claimed the 
right to meet his accusers face to face, and cross-examine 
them, but it was peremptorily refused, and the door shut in 
his face. Jefterson J. Allen, an attorney, and brother to 
Hon. William J. Allen, one of the prisoners, also requested 
permission to go in and question the witnesses, but was 
refused. All the Abolitionists about town, however, seemed 
to pass in and out ad libitum. I^ext morning, the Doctor 
reached Cairo, and the officer, who was quite drunk and 
overcome with drowsiness, merely told him to report at the 
Provost Alarshal's office at nine o'clock, and staggered away 
to seek his own comfort. 

After separating from Officer Scott, Dr. Bundy sought a 
hotel, and tried to refresh and brace himself preparatory to 
the ordeal of meeting the Marshal. But his heart was t()o 
full. He could not eat. The loss of his dear boy, the dan- 
gerous condition of his other children, the, dark cloud which 
lie knew Avas overehadowing his loved home and crushing 
out the life of his afflicted wife, with the knowledge that he 
was a prisoner, the victim of malice and revenge, and unable 
to render assistance or consolation, almost drove him to mad- 
ness. At 9 o'clock A.M., August 19, he went to the office 
of that most arbitrary and iniquitous of all military officers 
• — the Provost Marshal. When he entered, Major Merrill 
was engaged with some other prisoners, and seemed to take 
no notice of his presence for some time. Judges Allen, Duff, 
and Mulkey, Attorneys Youngblood and Clementson, Eev. 
Alexander C. K'elson, and some others, were present. After 
a while the Marshal ordered the roll of the Marion prisoners 
to be called, and then took from a desk a bundle of papers, 
which he ordered a clerk to read as evidence against them. 
It proved to be, in part, the statements heard by Dr. Bundy 
at Carbondale the night previous, which had been sent by 
Rcott, and accounted for the delay. Such a jumble of im- 
probabilities, contradictions, and falsehoods was, perhaps, 
never found outside of a Provost Marshal's office. 

After the reading was concluded, Dr. B. informed the 



SAMUEL H. B U N D Y, M. D. 391 

Marshal of what he had witnessed the previous night ; nrged 
the unfairness of the manner in which the testimony had 
been taken, mentioning the fact of some of the witnesses 
not having read what was written down by Dudding ; the 
refusal to admit him into the room to cross-examine the 
witnesses ; the rejection of all testimony favorable to the ac- 
cused, and declared that the statements as to his having used 
"disloyal words in a Fourth of July speech at Stroud's," were 
wholly untrue, as he could prove within live days, by the 
best men in AVilliamson County, if allowed to do so. Other 
gentlemen present made similar declarations. The Marshal 
replied that all this might be true, but that he had nothing 
to do with taking the evidence, and no authority to hear rebut- 
ting testimony. 

The Doctor then laid before him the afflicted condition of 
his family, and the necessity of his presence and assistance at 
home ; and oflered to obligate himself in any sum, with ade- 
quate security, to attend at any time, or as often as every 
second day, at that oftice, or elsewhere, within his reach, if 
permitted to return home while his children remained in a 
critical condition. Several other gentlemen warmly seconded 
the request. But it was of no avail. The Marshal merely 
removed his cigar, and remarking that he was not there to 
look after afflicted families, told the Doctor that he could 
either go to the " guard-house," or have the limits of the city, 
on his parole of honor, and report at nine o'clock each morn- 
ing. Of course, he preferred the latter. 

For two weeks. Dr. Bundy remained a prisoner on his 
parole, in Cairo, within a few hours' travel of his home, 
where two of his children still lay at the point of death, 
without being able to visit them and minister to their wants. 
Scarcely an hour passed that the condition of his family was 
not on his mind. 

Under the impulse of excitement, a man may rush into a 
burning building, or bare his bosom to a thousand deaths on 
the battle-field without a care ; but who that has a heart 
swelling with a husband's and father's love, can control its 



392 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

promptings, and remain day after day, without employment 
to divert his mind, within a few miles of an invalid wife, 
whom he had nursed for years, now bowed in affliction, and 
his darling little ones, prostrate and expected to die, without 
hitter anguish ? ]S"o language can describe the intense anxiety 
suffered l)y this victim of tyranny, as day and night he tra- 
versed the pavements, or walked to and fro in his room, 
vainly striving to escape his grief and quiet his restless 
spirit. The little form cold in death, the new-made grave, 
the agony of the weeping mother, left to seek her stricken 
home alone, and the prostrate forms of those still suffering 
under disease, were constantly before him. 

In the mean time, he resolved to make one more effort to 
reach the better feelings of Major Merrill ; and wrote him 
a note representing the condition of his family, and enclosed 
a letter from Mrs. B., full of touching sorrow, and giving 
the opinion of the attending physician that their little 
daughter could not recover ; appealing to his kinder nature 
and own domestic endearments ; and, finally, as he wore on 
his bosom the badge of a secret order, " ancient and honor- 
able," appealing to its' tokens of distress and fraternal obliga- 
tions, and offering to obligate himself in an}^ way to return, 
or to pay the expense of a guard to his house, if he was only 
permitted to visit his family, and see his child, before the 
earth should cover her loved form from his sight. This 
touching appeal was read and handed back with the coarse 
and brutal remark, " If this is repeated^ you will he 'put into 
dose confjuement" 

Thus he remained for two weeks, reporting to the Marshal 
at 9 A. M., each day, according to orders. 

At 9 o'clock P.M., September 2, Dr. Bundy, with his fellow- 
prisoners from Marion, was summoned before the Marshal, 
who delivered them into the custody of Major Bond and 
Isaac W. Phillips, who immediately took them to a car on 
the Illinois Central Bail road, and locked them up, placing a 
guard of four men over them, in Federal uniform, armed with 
muskets, who replied to incpiiries that the prisoners were 



SAMUEL H. B U N D Y, M. D. 393 

going to Springfield, Illinois, for trial. At this information 
they were all highly elated, for they knew that an impartial 
investigation, before any jnst tribunal, could result only in 
their liberation and speedy return to their families. 

The assurance from the guard, to Dr. Bundy, that he 
should have a fair hearing immediately on reaching Springfield, 
nearly made him wild with joy, and he managed, by the dim 
car-light, to pencil a note to his family full of comfort and 
encouragement, expressing strong hopes of being with them 
in a few days to share their grief and minister to their wants ; 
which he handed to a friend as the train passed Carbondale. 

At this point, an incident occurred which must ever remain 
green in the memory of grateful hearts. Just as the prison- 
car was moving from the station, Joseph M. Campbell, a mer- 
chant of that place, sprang upon the platform and asked 
admission, as he had very important business with some of 
the gentlemen. With a scowl he was refused. The door was 
locked. In a trice, he hoisted one of the end windows of the 
car, and before the bewildered sentinels had decided what to 
do, he was inside. With a roll of bank-bills in one hand, he 
grasped the hands of his old friends with the other, and gave 
them a hearty shake, saying, " Boys, there is no telling where 
these fellows will take you, nor how long you will be gone. 
I have a little money here, and if any of you are likely 
to need it, you are welcome ; and if this is not enough, I 
have plenty more." About one hundred dollars were dis- 
tributed to those who would take it. From Mr. Campbell, 
Dr. Bundy received the last news from his afilicted family, 
that reached him, until after his release from confinement. 

"When the train reached Centralia, a number of other pris- 
oners were found waiting ; and it was soon learned from con- 
versation among the oflicers, who seemed to have a warm 
dispute over the prize, that they were destined for Washing- 
ton City, under special orders from the War Department. 
All hopes of a speedy deliverance vanished immediately, and 
the fond anticipation of embracing his sick family faded from 
the Doctor's mind, as the glow of sunset sinks into night. 



394 AMEKTCAN BASTILE. 

From this point lie was borne along from his home through 
weary days and nights, more dead than alive, and he re- 
tains but an imperfect recollection of the occurrences upon 
the route ; except that Bond proved to be a contemptible, 
petty tyrant, and omitted no opportunity of insulting and 
annoying his victims ; being so overbearing, that on several 
occasions, Phillips voluntarily interfered in their behalf. 

On the 5th of September, the party reached Washington, 
and the prisoners were taken directly to that far-famed recep- 
tacle of Democratic offenders, the Old Capitol Prison, except 
Hon. William J. Allen, who, being dangerously ill, was left 
at a hotel, and a few days afterward was remanded to Spring- 
field, Illinois. But, though sick and in bonds, his generous 
lieart was not unmindful of his fellow-prisoners. Before 
leaving Washington, he deposited with a friend a large sum 
of money, subject to their orders in case they should need it. 

This Military Bastile has a world-wide reputation from the 
number of gentlemen of every social rank, who were confined in 
it during the war, the harsh and cruel treatment to which they 
were subjected, and the loathsome and disgusting condition of 
its cells. The simple statement, that one was confined within 
the Old Capitol Prison, conveys to most readers a pretty cor- 
rect idea of what he experienced, without entering into the 
details of locks, bars, sentinels, filth, vermin, prison fare, and 
ofiicial insults. When Dr. Bundy and his friends entered the 
prison. Lieutenant J. Miller, of the 10th New Jersey Volun- 
teers, was in command, with a strong military force under 
him, and William E. Wood was Superintendent. Miller was 
a supple tool of the unscrupulous tyrants he served — Gen- 
eral Wadsworth, commanding the District of Columbia, and 
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Mr. Wood seemed to 
be personally a gentleman of generous impulses. 

The room in which they were first confined was filthy 
beyond description. The floor was literally obscured by ex- 
crement, that emitted a stench which no human being could 
long have borne. It was supplied with sleeping-bunks ranged 
in tiers around the walls, which contained a few old mat- 



SAMUEL H. B U N D Y, M. D. 395 

tresses and soiled blankets, swarming witli vermin. There 
was not a chair, or bench, or table, on which a man could 
rest. One small window heavily grated, atlbrded the only- 
means of light and ventilation. The door was bolted and 
guarded by a sentinel. The food was of the poorest sort of 
prison-fare, badly prepared, and served to the prisoners as 
if they had been caged animals in a menagerie, rather than 
human beings, not to say gentlemen, accustomed to the pro- 
prieties and amenities of relined society. 

So intolerable was their condition that they were con- 
strained to address a strong appeal to the Superintendent, 
Mr. Wood, who in a few days had them removed to jSTo. 16, 
a tolerably large room on the third floor, which they were 
allowed, after much delay, to have cleansed and furnished 
with rude seats and tables, at their own expense. Finally, 
they were permitted to board themselves, by purchasing pro- 
visions in the city, and hiring the negroes, who had unre- 
stricted access to the prison yard, to cook for them. A ser- 
geant was detailed to purchase the provisions for them, and 
for others who were allowed the same privilege. ]^o. 10 con- 
tained twenty-one men, literally jammed together. 

Thus they remained week after week in close confinement, 
denied even the privilege of conferring or corresponding with 
any of their friends, lion. T. 11. Campbell, and other influ- 
ential gentlemen from Illinois, warmly interceded in their 
behalf, and urged that they might be admitted to trial, but 
in vain. They were in the grasp of a tyranny which neither 
law, justice, nor the appeals of mercy could relax. No attor- 
ne}^ was allowed to counsel them, and no judge dared to issue 
a writ ot" habeas corpus to inquire into the legality of their 
conflnement. 

Dr. liundy was attacked with dysentery soon after enter- 
ing the prison, from which he did not recover until long 
after his release. He wrote to his family every few days, to 
inform them of his condition, and try to comfort and 
encourage them in their sore atfliction. But his letters 
probably never went beyond the office of the prison. IS'^ot 



396 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

one of tbem ever reached his family ; who heard nothing 
directly from him after he passed Carbondale, and were con- 
tinually tortured by reports from " reliable sources," and 
newspaper articles, that he was " condemned to be shot ; " 
that he was "sent to prison during the war;" that "the 
proof against him was overwhelming," etc., etc. Nor was he 
allowed to hear a single word from his family or friends, 
although they addressed letters to him daily, informing him 
of the dark shadow which rested upon his house, and of the 
eftbrts that were being made for his release. 

Of what was occurring in the outer world he was kept in 
as profound ignorance as if he had been enclosed in the 
centre of the earth. He heard nothing except an occasional 
item of news that a sentinel might chance to utter within 
reach of his ear. His mind was constantly harrowed by the 
consciousness that those dearer to him than life or liberty 
were in deep affliction ; and uncertainty and suspense in- 
creased his mental agony to a degree which a free, healthy 
mind cannot conceive. 

On the last day of September, Dr. Bundy was summoned 
to the prison office, where Mr. Wood met and informed him 
that he was to go before Judge Turner for "trial." The 
Doctor replied that he was in no condition for an impartial 
trial, having been denied counsel, and having no witnesses 
nearer than Illinois. Wood, however, informed him in a con- 
fidential tone, that " that made no difference — that all would 
come out right." They went in company to the office of 
Judge Turner, who was engaged at the time they entered, 
listening to a clerk reading some kind of a document, and 
was leaning back in his chair, with his feet elevated on the 
table, smoking a cigar. He was soon at leisure, when Mr. 
Wood introduced Dr. Bundy as " one of the prisoners of 
state from Illinois." The Judge removed his cigar, nodded 
his head, and pointing to a chair, told the Doctor to be 
seated. He then asked him a few unimportant and silly 
questions, puffed his cigar, and remarked that he had 
examined the evidence against him, and considered it insuf- 



SAMUEL H. BUNDY, M. D. 397 

ficient to justify his confinement, and he would therefore be 
released. 

AJi this farce was enacted in a careless manner, that 
plainly stamped it as the merest mockery, the most con- 
temptible trilling with the forms of justice, and utter disre- 
gard of the feelings and rights of American citizens. 

The Judge's order, prepared by a clerk, was put into the 
hands of Wood, who conducted Dr. Bundy back to the prison 
ofhce, and gave it to Lieutenant Miller. He read it, and then 
asked the Doctor if he would take the oath of allegiance to 
the United States, who replied that he owed allegiance to no 
other Government, and would take the oath daily, if required. 
Miller then administered the oath, and handed him the fol- 
lowing certificate, which seemed to have been already pre- 
pared : 

"Old Capitol Prison, 
Washington, D. C, September 30, 1862. 
" To all whom it may concern : 

" Know ye, that Samuel H. Bundy (a prisoner of state) has 
been honorably released from this prison, he having taken the 
oath of allegiance to the United States Government. 

" By order, Secretaiy of War. 

Lieutenant J. Miller, 10th N. J. Vols." 

Thus, after being torn from the unfinished burial of his 
dear boy, dragged from the side of the weeping mother and 
his other sick children, imprisoned for a month and a half, 
and subjected to insult and abuse, it was found that the 
proof was insufiicient, and he was honorably discharged, 
nearly a thousand miles from his home, to find his way back 
as best he might ! What a commentary upon justice ! Wbat 
an example of boasted American liljerty ! 

The most cruel and heartless chapter of this outrage on 
the most sacred of human rights and feelings, and which 
should consign its authors to eternal infamy, is still untold. 

After handing the Doctor his certificate of release, Miller 
took from his desk and gave him a large bundle of letters 
from his family and friends at home ; all of which had been 



398 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

opened and read. Here were the tear-blotted words of grief 
and love from the companion of his youth, the bereaved and 
heart-broken mother of his children, and kind words of sym- 
pathy and encouragement from warm-hearted friends — let- 
ters informing him of the great bereavement he had suffered 
in the loss of his children, and of the threatening condition 
of his wife's health ; and letters telling him of the numerous 
affidavits of men of all parties, which had been forwarded to 
him by his friends. And yet, of all this he had been kept 
in profound ignorance. 

The first letter he opened happened to be from Hon. Wil- 
liam J. Allen, who had reached his home, and contained the 
sad news of the death of his idolized daughter, five years of 
age, who had died on the 12th of September, and also of the 
still dangerous illness, not only of another child, but of his 
wife. 

The shock was too much for his already overstrained 
nerves. The letters fell from his hands, and he was sup- 
ported to a cot, where he lay insensible for several hours. 
Returning consciousness only brought back the terrible grief 
to his heart. The sweets of liberty were imbittered, and the 
fond anticipations of soon embracing his loved ones were 
crushed. The thought that he had been wronged and mocked, 
and that he must now return to his desolate home, to the 
graves of his children and to his suffering wife, and bear his 
grief without the power to obtain justice or to vindicate 
himself before the world, quite unmanned him, and for a time 
his feelings had entire control of him. Late in the afternoon 
he rallied, went to his room for his clothes, told his sorrows 
to a few of his fellow-prisoners, bid them an affectionate fare- 
well, and left the Old Capitol Prison for his home in Illinois. 

Nothing occurred to interest him on the journey, for he 
noticed little that passed. His mind was busied with far 
different subjects. He reached home on the morning of 
October 5. The meeting with his family we will not attempt 
to portray. How changed was the little circle ! Two va- 
cant seats were at the hearth — two fresh graves were in 



SAMUEL H. B U N D Y, M. D. 399 

the churcli-yard. Mrs. Bundj's feeble frame was completely 
shattered, and she gradually declined in health, until death 
called her to rest beside her children. 

Such, dear reader, were the doings of the party which 
professed to labor for " God and humanity." Such was the 
heartless tyranny of men, who, clothed with a "little brief 
authority," set the laws at defiance, trampled under foot the 
principles of justice, disregarded the rights of citizens, and 
outraged family endearments, Christianity, and common de- 
cency. Shall they go unwhipped of justice? Shall they escape 
the verdict of history and a just retribution? "Will Ameri- 
can freemen suffer them thus to destroy the fair temple of 
liberty, without raising their voices and hands to stay the 
work of ruin? 



JOIIX APPLE. 

ME. JOHN APPLE, of Pliiladelpliia, was arrested by 
order of the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanroii, on 
the 15th of August, 1862, by Dejnity Marshal Schuyler. 
His arrest was made at the Jetlerson House, on the corner 
of Fifth and Poplar Streets, Philadelphia, and the prisoner 
was taken thence to the Marshal's office. 

Pie inquired of the Marshal the cause of his arrest, and 
was iufornied that it was for discouraging enlistments. ]Slr. 
Apple again asked who had made the charge, and was told 
that it had been made by a man named Burns. He then 
employed two attorneys to obtain for him a writ of habeas 
corpus, which they applied for, although the Marshal had 
told them his arrest was by order of the authorities at 
"VYashington, and a writ could not be granted, as he (the 
prisoner) was to be tried in that city. The writ was not ob- 
tained. 

He was started for AVashington the same niglit, arriving 
there about seven o'clock on the foH owing morning, (August 
16,) and was, at his request, taken to see Coloaiel Thomas B. 
Florence, who, together with the Marshal, accompanied him 
to the office of Judge Advocate Turner. 

Mr. Florence stated his case to the Judge, who said he 
had nothing to do with it, and remarked to the Marshal, 
" You have been ordered to take this man to the Old Capitol 
Prison, have you not?" The Marshal replied that such were 
the orders. The Judge then said that the prisoner would 
have to be taken there, as he had nothing to do with the 
case. 

He was then taken to the Old Capitol Prison, and placed 
in charge of Superintendent AVood. Apple remarked to 

400 



JOHN APPLE. 401 

"Wood, that tlie Marslial had no warrant for his arrest, nor 
any charge against him. The Superintendent replied, " We 
will find a charge against you." The Marshal was then sent 
to the office of the Provost Marshal of the District of Colum- 
bia, for a commitment for the prisoner. On his return, Wood 
placed him (Apple) in the hospital, in which there were from 
sixty to seventy sick soldiers, confined with difterent diseases, 
these being constantly augmented by fresh arrivals from the 
different camps. 

Here, he was compelled to eat and sleep, amid the vitiated 
air of the room, and the noxious exhalations of fever-stricken 
men. The food served them was poor in quality, and meagre 
in quantity. Those who had means were permitted to pur- 
chase such things as they wished, of which permission he 
quickly availed himself. He was detained in the hospital 
for about three weeks, and then removed to a room where a 
number of state prisoners were confined. This room was 
much cleaner than the hospital, and more healthy ; but both 
were full of rats, mice, and other vermin. 

During the term of his imprisonment, he saw but one 
friend. Others called to see him, but were refused admit- 
tance. In the single instance just mentioned, he was brought 
down stairs to the office, and held a short conversation with 
his visitor, while an officer stood between them, who would 
not permit him to make mention of his case. 

The duration of the interview was limited to fifteen min- 
utes, and at the expiration of that time he was returned to 
his room, where he remained until discharged. The letters 
that he received were opened and examined by three or four 
parties, stamped on the back, and approved by the Provost 
Marshal, before they were given to him. 

His letters passed through the same course, and if they 
contained anything which was deemed obnoxious, they were 
either sent back or detained. 

He remained immured for six weeks, when, in company 
with six others, he was conducted }>y the Superintendent to 
the Judge Advocate, who asked him if he belonged to any 

26 



402 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

secret political organization? lie replied that he did not. 
He then inquired if he would take the oath of allegiance, to 
■which Mr. Apple replied that he was a Democrat, and as 
euch owed allegiance to the Government already. The Judge 
Advocate then wished to know if he would give a bond for 
$5,000. He asked what for, and the answer was, to keep the 
peace. He then told the Judge Advocate he had never 
broken the peace, and would give no bond, as he preferred 
going to prison again to debasing himself ; and asked that a 
trial be accorded him. 

The Judge Advocate then blandly said that " he looked 
like a good-natured man, and he did not think he would do 
any injury," and discharged him from custody. 



nO^. DENNIS A. MAHONY. 

HON. DENNIS A. MAHONY, Editor of the " Dubuque 
Herald," was arrested about 4 o'clock a.m., on Thursday, 
the 14th of August, 1862, at his residence in Dubuque, Iowa. 
He was aroused from his slumbers by a man named Gregory, 
knocking at his door, who said he desired to see him in 
his office. Mr. Mahony replied, that he could do nothing 
there at that hour in the morning, nor could he get in, if he 
80 desired, as the keys were in possession of his clerk. Having 
been the recipient of several anonymous and threatening let- 
ters, and thinking that his visitor's midnight mission por- 
tended no good, he cried out loudlj"-, with the intention of 
arousing the neighbors. Gregory gave a signal-whistle, when 
Marshal Iloxie and his Deputy, P. H. Conger, together with 
a number of soldiers, appeared in front of his house, and 
demanded admittance. He, seeing that his arrest was de- 
sired, reproached Marshal Hoxie, with whom he was person- 
ally acquainted, with the disgraceful manner in which he was 
conducting the affair, and further inquired of him by what 
authority he made the arrest. He replied, by order of the 
Secretary of War. 

Mrs. Mahony became almost frantic with fear at the pro- 
bable fate of her husband ; and from the array of soldiers 
around the house, and their menacing remarks, she became 
much alarmed, when one of them brutally ordered her to 
*' hush up," or he would blow her brains out. 

Mahony prepared himself to accompany his captors, and 
was taken under escort to the Key City House for breakfast. 
Professing to be in a hurry to reach the steamer for Daven- 
port, Hoxie did not give him time to obtain a change of 
clothing, and he, thinking, iu all probability, that when he 

403 



404 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

had an interview with Governor Kirkwood, which the Mar- 
shal had promised him, he would he released, did not insist 
on it. His desire to see the Governor arose from the fact 
that that official was a personal friend, and had on a former 
occasion declared that no one should he taken from the State 
of Iowa, without first having had a trial to see whether the 
accused person was guilty of any ofience. Mr. Mahony made 
a second demand on the Marshal, for his authority in thus 
tearing him from his home and husiness, subjecting him to 
insult, and, ahove all, for depriving him of his personal liberty. 
Ihit to this the Marshal made no reply. 

Fearing a rescue, Mahony remarked to Hoxie, that he had 
better send the soldiers one way, and they would go another, 
in order to allay any excitement that his arrest might occa- 
sion. Captain Pierce, commanding the company of Regulars, 
approved of the suggestion, and the Marshal and his prisoner, 
closely followed by Deputy Conger, hurried on to the Key 
City House. Hoxie, after leaving him in the care of Deputy 
Conger, went out, and, as Mahony afterward learned, rejoiced 
with his friends on what had occurred, with fanatical zest. 

On his return, he took Mr. Mahony on board the steamer 
" Bill Henderson," bound for Davenport. The prisoner took 
every opportunity to prevent a collision between the people 
and the military. Yet, Marshal Hoxie circulated the report 
that he had tried to resist his writ. Arriving at the steamer, 
they found a company of soldiers drawn up on the levee, ana 
two guards, with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, were 
placed over him. His friends were allowed to approach him 
only by twos. From the steamer he wrote a letter to his 
friends in the city, stating the fact of his arrest, and detail- 
ing the ungentlemanly treatment by the Marshal and his 
deputies. A committee of the citizens of Dubuque was on 
the steamer, but none of them had the manly courage to 
speak to him, with tlie exception of Mr. D. S.Wilson, and he 
did so in a very formal manner, being a personal friend. He 
was guarded down the river by two soldiers, who had been 
selected for that purpose on account of their known antipathy 



DENNIS A. MAHONY. 405 

to all Democrats. The Marshal seemed to consider it a part 
of his duty to point him out to all the new recruits on board, 
who thereupon followed him around until he was forced to 
enter his state-room to escape their scrutinizing gaze, where 
he remained until they reached Davenport. This was not 
the only instance in which his " private and hallowed feel- 
ings" were outraged by the Marshal, who pursued a system- 
atic course of mean tyranny toward him, as will be seen in 
the sequel. 

Arriving in the city of Davenport, he was lodged at the 
Burton House, where he expected to meet the Governor, but 
was informed that he was not there. On inquiring of the 
Marshal, that official informed him that the Governor would 
arrive on the morrow, but one of the guard hooted at the idea ; 
and, as the Governor did not arrive at the appointed time, 
Mr. Maliony has no doubt that Hoxie wrote him not to come 
to the city — a fair sample of the treachery and duplicity of 
other officials higher in power, of which Marshal Hoxie was 
but an epitome. To a subsequent letter to the Governor, he 
received a cold and insolent reply, couched in insulting lan- 
guage, charging him with disloyalty, and declining an inter- 
view with him either at Iowa City or Davenport. He then 
felt satisfied that his bold defence of constitutional liberty 
had made him the object of partisan malignity, which was 
being manifested in the most despotic manner. He spent the 
night in the hotel, under guard, and, when he awoke in the 
morning, he was forcibly reminded, by the recumbent position 
of one of the sentinels, that his imprisonment was not an 
ideal thing, but a stern reality. After receiving Hoxie 's per- 
mission, he sauntered down the street, accompanied by his 
guard, to visit some friends. As he passed along, he met 
Judge Grant, who asked him what had happened to him, 
and, being informed, he volunteered to obtain a writ of habeas 
corpus for him. But Mahony declined the Judge's offer, 
remarking that he intended quietly to submit, as he thought 
he would be discharged as soon as his case was examined by 
the Governor. 



406 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

"While at Davenport, several personal friends called, and 
among tliem a Mr, Richardson, Editor of the " Democrat 
and News," Counsellor Parker, II. V. Dilden, an old ac- 
quaintance, and Mrs. D. V. "Wilson, who, woman-like, kindly 
assisted in procuring him some changes of clothing, in wiiich 
she was assisted by other noble ladies, to whose kindness he 
feels deeply indebted. On Friday, it was intimated to him 
that, instead of proceeding direct to Washington, he was to 
he taken down the river to Burlington ; for what reason, he 
could not then conceive. The Marshal, however, insinuated 
that other arrests were to be made, and subsequently in- 
formed him that David Sheward, Editor of the " Constitu- 
tion and Union," of Fairfield, Iowa, was one of the individ- 
uals to be seized. 

They arrived late on Saturday night at Burlington, and 
walked to the Barrett House, where he was placed in one of 
a suite of rooms selected by the Marshal, It having been 
noised about the town that he was there, a prisoner of state, 
on Sunday, numbers of political friends called to see him, and 
manifested more feeling and sympathy than the same class 
had done either at his home or at Davenport. The crowd 
became so demonstrative as to frighten the Marshal, who 
grudgingly gave permission to his friends to visit him. 
Wishing to go to church, and leave having been hesitatingly 
granted him, he w^as accompanied by an orderly sergeant of 
the regular service. They proceeded thither, and took seats 
in the same pew, presenting, at that time, a strange appear- 
ance in the free United States. 

During Sunday, the object of the visit to Burlington was 
revealed by the arrival of Mr. Sheward. To secure his arrest, 
as speedily as possible, the Marshal had engaged a powerful lo- 
comotive from the Superintendent of the Burlington and Mis- 
souri Railroad, and, accompanied by that individual, had pro- 
ceeded to Fairfield, and arrested Sheward at the house of a 
friend, where he was dining. Placing him on the locomotive, 
they soon arrived at Burlington, where Mr. Sheward was for- 
mally presented to the person who, from that day forward, 



DENNIS A. MAHONY. 407 

(the 17th of August,) was to be his fellow-prisoner and room- 
mate, for the three following months, in the nov7 historic Old 
Capitol Prison. The excitement in the city became more 
intense when it was found that Sheward was also in custody. 
Under the pretext of removing them to more comfortable 
quarters, Iloxie placed them in a part of the house inore re- 
mote from access by their mutual friends, quadrupled the 
guard, and gave positive orders to shoot either of them should 
they attempt to elude their vigilance. This order came near 
proving fatal to Mr. Mahony, who, in attempting to speak 
to the guard as to the disposal of an intoxicated man, was 
thrust back, with the imprecation, " t) — n you, stand back, 
or I '11 shoot you." Mahony 's indignation was aroused, but 
his humiliating position, in the hands of his enemies, would 
not admit of his resenting the insult, and he was obliged to 
submit to their taunts, jeers, and insulting badinage- 
Sunday evening, and a part of Monday, were spent in 
visiting friends, and receiving visitors. The Marshal had his 
headquarters in the office of the "Hawk Eye," an Abolition 
journal, that made a craven attack on Mr. Mahony, when 
first arrested. Here all persons wishing to have an interview 
with the prisoners were obliged to go, to obtain the neces- 
sary pass, which, of course, was very humiliating to them. 
Senator Grimes, a personal friend of Mr. Mahony since 1854, 
made him a friendly call while in Burlington, and promised 
to address the Secretary of War, demanding for him a speedy 
trial, which promise he fulfilled in a delicate, dignified, and 
friendly manner. Mr. Postlewaite, on visiting them, forced 
upon them the contents of his pm'se, observing, proi:)het- 
ically, as it turned out, that they might need it before they 
again obtained their freedom. Bumors were circulated du.r- 
ing the day that Judge Hall, Messrs. Postlewaite, Browning, 
and Carpenter, and General Dodge, were to be arrested. 
But these gentlemen, regardless of the clamor, visited them 
at the hotel. 

In the evening, they were ordered to prepare themselves 
to start for Washington. This was easily done, as Mahony 



408 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

was almost destitute, and liad but little means with which 
to make a few necessary purchases. Sheward would have 
been as badly off, had not his wife arrived on Monday even- 
ing, with clothing and money. A guard was detailed to 
take them to the ferry boat. The streets were crowded, 
some of the people looked on approvingly, but the majority 
with a scowl at their custodians, and a silent pity for the 
captives. In the cars, en route to Chicago, they were guarded 
by the Marshal and a Sergeant. An accident, caused by the 
collision of two freight trains, detained them for some hours, 
so that they did not reach Chicago until the next morning. 
' The Marshal, after providing himself at the Quarter- 
master's office with transportation to Washington, took them 
to the cars of the Chicago, Fort Wayne, and Pittsburg Rail 
road, on which, as elsewhere, they were examined by an 
official, whose duty it was to examine all travellers, to pre- 
vent persons from evading the draft by escaping to foreign 
countries. But as they were then in the custody of the Gov 
ernment, no difficulty was experienced in passing. Hoxie took 
especial pains here, as elsewhere, to inform the bystanders 
that he had " two Democratic prisoners of state." At Har- 
risburg thoy found themselves within the influence of martial 
law. The railroad, from that place to Baltimore, was under 
a guard of armed men, and the cars were full of soldiers 
returning home on furlough, or going for the first time to 
the tented field. 

This was the case all the way to Washington, which they 
reached about noon on the 21st of August. They were im- 
mediately marched to tjae office of the Military Governor, 
General Wadsworth, and left to stand in the hot sun, in 
front of the building, while the jSIarshal, and a friend named , 
Taylor, also in the Government employ, entered the office to 
obtain their commitment. On their return, Hoxie ordered 
the prisoners to get into a prison van, which stood at the 
door, and they were driv^en to the Old Capitol, and turned 
over to Lieutenant Holmes, who examined their baggage, 
questioned them in regard to the possession of arms, liquors, 



DENNIS A. MAHONY. 409 

or valuables ; and not being satisfied with the answers, took 
hold of them, shook them roughly, and finding nothing con- 
traband that he might confiscate, handed them over to a 
guard, with directions to take them to room IsTo. 13, which 
the reader will find fully described in the history of the Old 
Capitol Prison. This room they found occupied by two Vir- 
ginia gentlemen, and Dr. J. C. Stanley, of Chicago. After 
undergoing the formalities of an introduction, and a cross- 
-examination, and registering themselves, they set about 
"learning the ropes." A few hours brought darkness, and 
with it their first night in the Old Capitol. The next day 
after their incarceration, they were visited by Judge Charles 
Mason, of Iowa, avIio volunteered to act as counsel for them, 
and arrangements were made for bringing their cases to the 
notice of the Secretary of War, with a view to a trial as 
speedily as possible. 

A few days afterward, Mr. Mahony was visited by the 
correspondent of the " Chicago Times," F. B. Wilkie, Esq., 
who had formerly been local editor of the " Duburpie Herald." 
During the conversation, Mr. Mahony was informed by that 
gentleman that he had been nominated for Congress. This 
remark displeased Lieutenant Holmes, who immediately put 
an end to the interview. On returning to his room, and 
consulting with his fellow-prisoners, they advised him to 
write a letter to his constituents accepting the nomination, 
which he did, and which was returned to him with the 
order, in reference to letters, given elsewhere. Feeling that 
he was detained in prison to gratify jxirtisan malice, he wrote 
another long letter to his constituents, reiterating his former 
acceptance, and expressing his views on the leading topics of 
the day, at much length. This letter was passed out sur- 
reptitiously, and, after publication, caused much surprise to 
the ofiicials of the prison. 

Judge Mason's application to the Secretary of War for the 
charges against Mr. Mahony, brought a denial from that 
official of all knowledge of any. The Assistant Secretary, P. 
IL Watson, declined granting him the privilege of examining 



410 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the records in the Provost Marshal's office to ascertain the 
charges against him, and, in his reply to the Judge, delivered 
this unique sentence: "Let him prove himself innocent." 
" Innocent of what ? " inquired Judge Mason, " How is he to 
know of what he is to prove himself innocent ? " From that 
time until he was discharged, after an imprisonment of three 
months, he did not learn the nature of the charges against 
him, and all the applications that he made for that purpose 
were alike futile. Mr. Mahony fared badly until the or- 
ganization of messes. Previous to that, his tare consisted 
of bread with the addition of beef for dinner, (denominated 
7nule,) and coffee of a nnserable quality. This regimen was 
sometimes changed by the arrival of boxes from some dis- 
charged prisoner, containing butter and some other solid and 
palatable food ; but they were " like angels' visits, few and 
far between." 

While confined here, Mr. Mahony was affected by one of the 
most touching incidents of his life, in the compassionate re- 
gard shown him by a contraband. Shortly after the second 
battle of Bull Run, Banks's corps d'armee arrived in Wash- 
ington, destitute of provisions. Requisition was at once 
made for all the bread that could be obtained. Prisoners of 
state were among the first deprived of bread, and hardtack 
was substituted, some of which was so hard that l)r. Ross, 
of Tamaroa, Illinois, figuratively said " he had knocked fire 
from them;" and Sheward declared "that the barrel contain- 
ing the crackers was marked 400 B. C, an indication of their 
age," which our readers will readily understand without ex- 
planation. But we digress. The contraband " Bob " ap- 
proached him on the second day, in an awkwardly familiar 
manner, saying, as he came near, " Dese crackers is too hard 
for massa, an' I to't I 'd bring him dis 'ere loaf uv bread," 
saying which, he pulled out from his bosom a small loaf, a 
part of his own rations, and handed it to him. Mr. Mahony 
was overpowered with confiicting emotions. His treatment 
and that of his fellow-prisoners, their subjection to such 



DENNIS A. MAHONY. 411 

usage as they were then enduring, and the humanity of the 
poor negro, with other thoughts, crowded together in his 
mind, and for a moment he was without the power of utter- 
ance. As soon as he regained his self-control, he inquired of 
"Bob" whether the servants, all colored, were furnished with 
bread rations. He replied that they were. So it appeared 
that only the victims of despotism were obliged to put up with 
the cracker fare. Mahony, at times, when his indignation 
was aroused, denounced the tyrannical acts of the Administra- 
tion in round terms. 

During the campaign before Washington, in August, 1862, 
the prisoners distinctly heard the booming of the distant 
cannon, which created much excitement among them. Often 
for hours did they sit by the barred windows, looking into 
the street, and listening to the firing, which daily became . 
more distinct. Various were the conjectures of the prisoners 
as to their probable fate, should they fall into the hands of 
the Confederates ; for the prisoners and deserters who flocked 
into Washington, gave color to the idea current among them, 
that disaster and defeat had overtaken the troops at the front. 
That the army was falling back on the city soon became evi- 
dent to all. 

The Eebel prisoners in the yard were jubilant, and were 
confident that victory was gracing their standard. As their 
shouts of exultation rent the air, many a prisoner 

. . . . " felt a filial heart 
Beat high within him at a mother's wrongs." 

And many were the prayers for her preservation, b}'- those 
victims whose supplications to the President, for their own 
liberty, had " been answered only by repeated injury." 

The culpable carelessness of the prison guard in firing 
through the ceiling, came near, on one occasion, causing 
Mr. Mahony 's death. We copy a statement drawn up and 
certified to by his fellow-prisoners, viz. : 



412 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

" Old Capitol Prison, 
Washington, D. C, October 22, 1862. 
" The undersigned, prisoners in the Old Capitol, do hereby tes- 
tify, that on this day, viz., the twenty-second of October, 1862, 
at two o'clock and forty minutes p.m., a ball was fired through 
the floor of room No. 16, in which we, the undersigned, were at 
the time present. The ball passed through the head of the bed 
on which D. A. Mahony, a prisoner of state, was at the time re- 
clining, and on which he had been lying most of the day, ill. At 
the moment the ball went through his bed, he had raised him- 
self up on one of his elbows to speak with a fellow-prisoner, Dr. 
Moran, who was shaving at the time. Had Mr. Mahony been 
lying down as he had been most of the day, the ball would have 
gone through his head inevitably. The force with which the 
ball was shot will be understood from the fact that, after passing 
through the ceiling and floor underneath room No. 16, it went 
through one of the slats of the bed, through two bedticks, 
through a blanket of twelve thicknesses rolled up as a pillow, 
and through a feather pillow, and then penetrated the ceiling of 
room No. 16, As an evidence of the truth of all of which, we 
hereby subscribe our names, in presence of Hon. Andrew D. Duff, 
Judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit, Illinois. 

John H. Mulkey, 
M. L. Eoss, 
Frank P. Blair, Jr. 

" This will certify that I was present during the affair above 
described, and believe, if it was not designed, to be the result of 
gross carelessness on the part of those having the control of the 
guard of the Old Capitol Prison. 

Tiios. T. Ellis, M.D., 
Late Post Surgeon, New York, and Medical- Director." 

Next morning after this occurrence, one of the guard shot 
himself through the head, in front of the prison. 'No public 
mention was ever made of the occurrence. Not only w^ere 
some of the guard careless and reckless, hut several of them 
were rude and vicious to a degree bordering on brutality. 
One day, Mr. Mahony was standing at one of the windows 



DENNIS A. MAHONY. 413 

in room Xo. 10, looking out, in a contemplative mood. The 
guard upon the pavement below, observing him, called to 
him to stand back from the window. Mahony replied that he 
was as far back as the rules of the prison required. 

" Damn you," said the guard, " if you do not stand back, 
I'll shoot you." 

Mahony very complacently remained standing where he 
was, but watched the guard's motions closely. After two or 
three commands similar to that first given to stand back, 
the guard brought his musket to his shoulder, and was about 
to take aim, when Mr. Mahony peremptorily ordered him to 
" Shoulder arms ! " lie was so suddenly startled by the com- 
mand coming, as he no doubt supposed, from the chief officer, 
that he quickly shouldered his musket. A shout of derisive 
laughter from the other window of the prison, facing the 
guard's position, was the first conscious intimation the fellow 
had that he had obeyed the order of Mr. Mahony. 

During the remainder of the time that this man remained 
on duty, he seldom took his eye off the window at which 
Mahony had stood, and the latter was equally as attentive, 
but at a respectful distance. After Superintendent Wood's 
return from Richmond, where he had been on a peace mis- 
sion, he promised to have the Western prisoners, who had 
been confined nearly three months, released. 

They were all suffering more or less from their confine- 
ment, especially Mahony, who was failing so rapidly, that 
the physicians in the room became alarmed at his situation. 
After examining him, they expressed their opinion in the 
subjoined certificate: 

"This will certify that we, the undersigned physicians and 
surgeons, having carefully examined Dennis A. Mahony, a pris- 
oner of state, now confined in the Old Capitol Prison at Wash- 
ington, D.C., do hereby affirm it as our professional opinion, that 
the bad health of Mr. Mahony is the result of continued confine- 
ment; and, further, we believe the disease which he is now suf- 
fering from, (namely, incipient paralysis,) is aggravated by his 



414 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

imprisonment, and that a protraction of it will continue to affect 
him injuriously, and thereby endanger his life. 

Thomas T. Ellis, M. D., and M. E. C. L. S. 

John J. Moran, M.. D. 
"In presence of A. D. Duff." 

On tlie lOtli of November, Superintendent Wm. P. Wood 
presented to Judges DufF and Mulkey, and Messrs. Mahony 
and Sheward, a paper, adding that he was directed to do so 
by the Judge Advocate Turner, and to inform them that 
they could not be released until they signed it, and agreed tc 
comply with its requirements. On examination it proved to 
contain these obligations : an oath, both of allegiance to the 
Government, and an obligatmi not to 2)^^osecute the Federal or 
/State officers concerned in their arrest and iinprisomnent of them. 
The first impulse was to refuse to take that or. any oath 
as a condition of release. Not that they objected to the 
taking of an oath of allegiance, but to do so would imply 
that they were guilty of some oftence against the Govern- 
ment. Reflection, and the urgent advice of their fellow-jjris- 
oners, together with the declaration of the Superintendent 
that they would not be discharged if they refused, and that 
it was exacted to protect those in the employ of the Govern- 
ment from suits for damages, (several of which had been 
commenced by prisoners after their discharge,) induced them 
to take it. 

That our readers may see what the oath was, we append 
the subjoined copy: 

" I, , of , do solemnly that I will support, pro- 
tect, and defend the Constitution and Government of the United 
States against all enemies, whether domestic or foreign, and 
that I will bear true faith, allegiance, and loyalty to the same, 
any ordinance, resolution, or law of any State Convention or 
Legislature to the contrary notwithstanding; and further, that I 
do this with a full determination, pledge, and purpose, without 
any mental reservation or evasion, whatever; and further, that 
I will neither enter any of the States now in insurrection against 
the authority of the Federal Government, or hold any corre- 



DENNIS A. MAHONY. 415 

gpondence whatever with them, or with any persons in them, 
during the rebellion, without permission of the Secretary of War, and 
that I will in all things deport myself as a good and loyal citizen 
of the United States; and that 1 will not cause or commence 
any action or suit against the officers of any loyal State, or of 
the United States, for causing my arrest or imprisonment, at any 
future time, so help me God. Sworn to and subscribed before 

me, this — day of . 

"A true copy. J. J. Moran, M.D. 

Frederick, Md." 

On the 11th of ISTovemher, Judge Duff, of Benton, Illinois ; 
Judge Mulkey, of Cairo, Illinois ; David Sheward, of Fair- 
field, Iowa ; and Dennis A. Mahony, of Dubuque, Iowa, were 
taken before Judge Advocate Turner, who, without giving 
them a trial or an examination, further than to question 
them as to whether the^^ were members of the Knights of 
the Golden Circle, administered the oath to them, and dis- 
charged them. The discharge read as follows : 

" Old Capitol Prison, 
Washington, D. C, November 11, 1862. 
"To all whom it may concern : 

"This will certify that the bearer, Dennis A. Mahony, a pris- 
oner of state, has been duly and honorably discharged from • 
custody at this prison. 

" By 01 del', Secretary of War. 

Captain B. L. Higgins, 
Co. A, 86th N. Y. V., Commanding." 

Similar discharges were given to the others. They returned 
to their room, to pack up the few pieces of clothing that 
remained, and bid farewell to their fellows-prisoners, 

A leave-taking supper was prepared for them by the few 
remaining victims, to be partaken of in room Is'o. 16, " the 
scene of triumphs, and the scene of pains." The room was 
lighted with candles, and the mess-tables drawai together and 
filled with such articles as the prisoners could procure. The 
Superintendent was invited to partake of the viands. He 
replied that it w^as against the rules for him to eat with the 



416 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

prisoners ; but as tlie four gentlemen about to leave were no 
longer j^risoners, he would accept the invitation, which he 
did, and appeared as much aft'ected as the rest. 

The gentlemen about to leave had been the longest in 
prison. All the later arrivals looked up to them for counsel 
and sympathy, and they were then about to separate, perhaps, 
forever. This and other reflections swelled their hearts with 
emotions which found vent only in tears. Forcing them- 
selves away, they waved adieu to their old companions, and 
took final leave of the Old Capitol Prison. 



CYRUS F. SARGENT. 

MR. CYRUS F. SARGEI^T, the subject of this narra- 
tive, was born in Yarmouth, Maine, in 1814, of highly 
respectable parents. When about nineteen years of age, he 
went to Louisiana to engage in business, and spent some two 
or three years in the employ of one of the most influential 
merchants of New Orleans. He subsequently located in 
Union County, Arkansas, as a merchant. The State was at 
that time in a prosperous and flourishing condition, and by 
strict attention to it, his business proved prosperous, and he 
acquired quite a fortune. Owing to sickness, he was com- 
pelled to leave the State, and removed North in 1856 or '57. 
But his old friends in Arkansas induced him to commence 
business in New Orleans in the fall of 1860, his family still 
residing in Yarmouth, Maine, which was his home. Hear- 
ing of the death of his wife in April, 1861, and having a 
family of helpless children at home, he closed his business in 
New Orleans and started for Maine. At this time the war 
had commenced. 

Soon after his return to Maine, he attended, with other Dem- 
ocrats, a Convention at Portland. The subject of the war 
being the topic of discussion, he was called upon for a state- 
ment of the feeling of the Southern people. He told them 
that the people of the South felt that the war was forced 
upon them, and all they asked was that the Government 
should be administered according to the Constitution, and 
not as Abraham Lincoln said it should be, viz., on the 
Black Republican platform, for that platform was virtually a 
declaration of war against the Slave States of the Union. 

Mr. Sargent left Portland, Maine, for Boston, Massachu- 
setts, on the morning of September 23, 1861. "While seated 

21 417 



418 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

in a car reading the morning paper, he was attacked by four 
ruffians, shortlj' after reaching South Berwick Junction. 
One, a Deputy United States Marshal, came up behind him, 
and jumped upon him, crushing him down between the seats. 
The others got hold of him by the head and arms, three hold- 
ing him, while a fourth handcuffed him. 

Immediately on being permitted to rise, he demanded their 
authority for thus acting, when the Deputy ISIarshal took 
from his pocket a paper, saying, " That is my authority." 
oMr. Sargent asked permission to read it, but was refused. 
He then requested the Marshal to do so, but this he also de- 
clined. After ironing him securely, they searched his per- 
son, when one of the four, a man named Goddard, drew his 
revolver, saying : " This is the thing we settle such fellows 
as you with." Sargent called him a contemptible coward to 
draw a revolver on a man in irons. 

The cars being full, the passengers collected around the 
scene, but no one had the manliness to raise his voice against 
the brutal manner in which the prisoner was treated. 

The Marshal and his minions then pushed him into a small 
saloon-room, and there detained him until the train arrived 
in Boston. 

He was taken in a coach across the city, and placed in the 
cars for Xew York, stopping only a short time in a room con- 
nected with the United States Marshal's office. 

Deputy United States Marshal Heald, who had him in con- 
finement, refused to loose the handcuffs that he might have 
an opportunity of writing a few lines to his children and 
friends, in Yarmouth, to allay their anxiety at his absence. 
They did not even permit him to attend to the calls of nature. 
It was with great difficulty that Deputy Marshal Keyes in- 
duced Heald to unfasten the irons from one wrist, and that 
was replaced within half an hour. On arriving in IN'ew York, 
he was placed in a loathsome dungeon in the Tombs, and 
there compelled to pass the night amid a horrible stench. 

The next morning, September 24, he was taken to Fort 
Hamilton, Heald passing a receipt with General Knox, then 



CYKUS F. SARGENT. 419 

in command of the Fort. Thence he was immediately trans- 
ferred to Fort Lafayette, Lieutenant Wood in command. 
Here, he was placed in one of the casemates, which was 
crowded with other victims of Puritanical tyranny. He was 
without a blanket or mattress for several nights, and suffered 
much from the cold while lying on the damp brick-floored 
casemate. He was unable to eat the scanty food furnished 
him, but soon got a chance to take two meals per day in a 
mess made up among the prisoners. They employed a man 
connected with the Fort to furnish them with provisions, 
which were cooked in his apartments. The prisoners com- 
posing the mess paid the bills. The water, for the first ten 
days during his imprisonment, was filled with live, snakish- 
looking insects, and was so offensive that the prisoners had to 
close their nostrils while drinking it. 

The last of October, he, together with a number of others, 
was removed by steamer to Fort Warren, Boston Harbor. 
The sufiering of the prisoners, while on this rotten, unsea- 
worthy steamer, beggars description. The hold was crowded 
with Hatteras prisoners, kept without food for forty-eight 
hours ; and, on arriving at Fort Warren, some of them were 
nearly dead, and survived but a few days. 

The treatment and accommodations at Fort Warron were 
much superior to those at Fort Lafayette, while the prisoners 
were not obliged to endure the uncalled-for abuse to which 
they had been subjected at the latter place. The reader will 
see details elsewhere. 

He was released in the latter part of ISTovember, after hav- 
ing been in confinement about two months, without having 
any charges preferred against him. His friends went to 
Washington, stated the case to Mr. Seward, Secretary of 
State, who pretended ignorance of the matter, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that Mr. Sargent's attorney saw a telegram from 
Seward, ordering his arrest by the Marshal, some two weeks 
before it was made. 

He had been arrested once before on the same telegram, 
but his friends had secured a writ of habeas cor^pus for him, 



420 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

and the case was abandoned. Previons to the serving of the 
writ, he endured forty-eight hours' confinement in jail. While 
an occupant of Fort Lafayette, his friends demanded a trial 
for him, hut all to no purpose. His friends, who were inde- 
fatigable in their efi:brts, next negotiated wath the law part- 
ner of a United States Senator for his release. Whether he 
was instrumental in obtaining his freedom or not, Mr. Sar- 
gent is not aware ; however, he was shortly after discharged, 
with a bill of expenses heavy enough to have liberated a 
dozen men. He had also requested his friends to make a 
demand on the Governor of his State to interfere and demand 
a trial. To this, they replied " that Robert Elliott, of his 
State, then his fellow-prisoner, had made a similar demand 
on the Governor, and that he had declined having anything 
to do with it ; " thus permitting citizens of Maine to be 
dragged from the State and imprisoned, without a trial, or 
even the eftbrt to secure one. Mr. Sargent still resides in 
Yarmouth, a man of undoubted integrity, and a prominent 
citizen. 



JOSEPH "E. eva:^^, joiin ir. torter, ^vii^liam 
EVANS, DAVID McCARTY, JAMES KEITH, ja 
SEPH W. GIDEON, AND VALENTINE M. GIDEON. 

DURING tlie uiglit of the 14tli, and the morning of the 
15th of September, 1862, the following gentlemen were 
arrested by armed mobs disgracing the name of soldiers : 
Joseph K. Evans and John H.' Porter, of Winterset, and 
Esquire David McCarty, William Evans, James Keith, Jo- 
seph W. Gideon, and Valentine M. Gideon, residing in the 
country. Of these we sliall give separate sketches, but blend 
their history as prisoners. 

JOSEPH K. EVANS. 

J. K. Evans was born in Washington County, Indiana, in 
the year 1819. His father w^as a native of Wales, and emi- 
grated to the United States in 1785, served under General 
Harrison at " Tippecanoe," etc., and was a faithful soldier 
under General Jackson. Mr. Evans's mother was born in 
the memorable year 1776. His grandfather on his mother's 
side was a soldier in Daniel Morgan's celebrated rifle corps, 
and was present at the surrender of Coruwallis at Yorktown. 
Afterward he served under General Greene, and was killed 
near Charleston, South Carolina. 

Mr. Evans has resided in Iowa since 1841, and his present 
jiome is in Madison County of that State. 

His arrest was made at about two o'clock on the morning 
of September 15, 1862, by a company of soldiers claiming to 
De a part of the 23d Iowa, acting under orders from United 
States Marshal Hoxie, a name synonymous with imbecility 
and corruption. The prisoner was driven from his house at 

421 



422 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the bayonet's point, not being allowed time to dress, bis 
children following him with his necessary apparel. His 
house was robbed, during that morning, of notes of hand to 
the amount of four hundred dollars, which he never recovered. 
His family were brutally menaced and insulted. Mr. Evans 
held the oiiiee of Sheriff of Madison County, for several 

yoai'o, ^vitK Koiior to Lin:i.cclf anrl tlie party which elected 

him. He then retired to private life with means suihcient to 
support his family comfortably, by combining industry with 
frugality. But the robbery of his house, his imprisonment, 
and consequent loss of time and health, have reduced him to 
poverty. He is still unflinchingly Democratic; and with the 
proud consciousness of having suffered for his country, and 
the determination still to do her service, he bears the "slings 
and arrows of outrageous fortune" with fortitude. From 
Joseph Iv. Evans, we. pass to his nephew, 

WILLIAM EVA:N'S. 

Of the personal history of this gentleman we shall be 
compelled to speak in more general terms. The statement 
made above, of the ancestry of Joseph K., will serve to some 
extent for William. His father, Robert A. Evans, was born 
in Washington County, Indiana, has alwaj^s been a farmer, 
and is now an intelligent, influential, hale old man. His 
mother is descended from one of the oldest families of Vir- 
ginia, and was a school-mate of President John Tjder. His 
grandfather, David Shoemaker, served under General Wash- 
ington, and also assisted in suppressing the Whiskej^ Insur- 
rection. One of his uncles fell in the Mexican War, and 
another in the Indian service. . 

Mr. Evans was about twentj^-three years of age at the 
time of his arrest, which took place before daylight on the 
inorning of the loth of September, 1862. His father's house 
was surrounded by a numerous mob, and his surrender 
demanded. Resistance was not attempted. The old gentle- 
man, in opening the door to admit the mob, (under promise 
of proper treatment and speedy trial,) was severely wounded 



DAVID Mccarty — j. h. p o e t e r. 423 

with a bayonet. And after William was in custody, lie was 
fired at by the commander of the outlaws, the ball passing 
close to him, almost grazing the head of a sleeping child, 
and burying itself in the Avail. He Avas then hurried to 
Winterset, a guard being left to prevent any of the family 
from escaping to give the alarm. Mr. Evans was elected to 
the office of Assessor while in prison. 

He is a young man of uncommon natural talent and good 
information. 

He is, however, a cont6nted farmer, and his extreme 
modesty has thus far prevented him from seeking or accept- 
ing those honors which he so richly deserves, and which his 
numerous friends would gladly bestow upon him. 

DAVID Mccarty, esq. 

David McCarty is a native of Claiborne County, East 
Tennessee, and is descended from Irish ancestry. His father, 
Thomas McCarty, Avas a Captain under General Jackson, 
and afterAvard removed to Putnam County, Indiana, Avhile 
it was yet a Territory. Here, David McCarty married the 
daughter of Captain Clift Glassbrook, and, in 1839, remoA'ed 
to Buchanan County, JSIissouri. In 1851, he went to loAva, 
and settled in Madison County. Here, he filled the office of 
Justice of the Peace for six years. He was nominated by 
the Democratic party of his district for a seat in the Legis- 
lature, and although the district was largely Republican, he 
Avas defeated by but a small majority. 

He Avas afterAvard elected a member of the Board of Super- 
visors, and presided over that body during his term of office. 

He was arrested before day, on the 15th of September, 
1862, by a detachment of ten men, his family insulted, and 
he taken from his house Avithout sufficient time to finish 
dressing, and hurried oft' to Winterset. 

JOHN H. PORTER. 

John H. Porter Avas born in Madison County, Indiana. 
He was arrested at his house in Winterset, about two 



424 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

o'clock, on the morning of September 15, 1862, Every 
trunk, box, hole, and corner of the house was searched for 
papers. His kidnappers said some persons had sworn that 
Mr. Porter was Secretary of a Lodge of tlie Knights of the 
Golden Circle. This charge, will of course, have its proper 
weight with those who know that Mr. Porter cannot write 
his own letters. Mr. Porter is a quiet, inoffensive citizen, and 
takes no part in politics. 

J. W. GIDEOK 

Joseph "W. Gideon is, and has always been, a farmer. He 
is a man of limited education, and makes very little preten- 
tions as a politician. He was arrested at night, September 
15, 1862, and immediately taken to Winterset, His kidnap- 
pers promised him a speedy trial, and a traitor's fate. 

y.'m. GIDEOI^. 

Valentine M. G ideon was arrested at the same time with 
his brother, J. W. Gideon, and treated in a similar manner. 

JAMES KEITH. 

James Keith was brutishly torn from his needy family, 
before daylight, on the 15th of September, 1862. 

He never heard of any charge, verbal, or otherwise, 
except " disloyalty." This shameful act of vindictiveness 
brought upon the head of its author the hatred of all 
good citizens. After the arrest of the gentlemen above 
named, they were dragged to "Winterset, under promise of 
trial at that place; but for fear of rescue, they were hurriedly 
crammed into extra coaches, heavily ironed^ (except J. K. 
Evans, Porter, and Keith,) and started early in the morning 
for Des Moines. The Marshal, Hoxie, by whose direction 
they were arrested, gave the guards the following order : 
"If a rescue is attempted, shoot the prisoners frst. If any 
one of the prisoners attempts to escape, shoot, and shoot to kill 
— only halt him o?ict'." On the wa}^ to Des Moines, the officers 
and guard got dinner, but compelled the prisoners to remain 



. JAMES KEITH. 425 

in the coaclies. At Des Moines, the prisoners again demanded 
to know (as they had done at the time of their arrest,) upon 
what authority and for what cause they were seized. They 
were answered that they should know soon enough. They 
demanded trial, and were answered with jeers and insults. 

Upon arrival at Des Moines, the prisoners, amid all kinds 
of insult, except personal violence, were marched to Camp 
Burnside, and given a sick man's allowance of dry bread. 
The next day they were again ironed., and driven to Newtown, 
in Jasper County, where they were joined by Kaylor, Mann, 
and Beal. Their treatment from this time is given in Mr 
Naylor's narrative, all being confined together and treated 
alike. 

The reception of the prisoners on arriving at Winterset, 
after their release, was most enthusiastic. 

Their arrival at Des Moines was made known at Winterset 
in the shortest time possible, and in ten hours — hours of 
night mostly — a concourse of jubilant Democrats, sufficiently 
large to form a procession one mile in length, convened at 
AVinterset to w^elcome the martyrs home. The enthusiasm 
on the occasion baffles description. 

The prisoners were met four miles east of the town, and 
escorted in triumph to their homes. 



HON. RICHARD BENNETT CARMICHAEI 

MARYLAND, from the first settlement of the State down 
to the present time, has had many citizens to whose 
names she can point with pride and admiration. Among 
them may be designated Richard Bennett Carmichael. De- 
scended from one of the oldest families of the Eastern Shore, 
the name — which has been identified with the best inter- 
ests of the State, before, during, and since the Revolutionary 
"VVar — alone carries with it respect and confidence. 

The father of Judge Carmichael was a lawyer of erudition 
and distinction, while he himself possesses the reputation of 
being one of the soundest and most learned lawyers of his 
State. 

When quite a young man, he was elected a member of 
Congress, which position he filled with great satisfaction to 
his constituency. After his retirement from Congress, he 
engaged in professional and agricultural pursuits, at the same 
time being the recipient of many offices of honor and trust. 
Subsequently, he was chosen Judge of the Circuit Court com- 
prising the Counties of Kent, Queen Anne, Caroline, and' 
Talbot. 

The election of Mr. Lincoln, in 1861, upon the issues in- 
volved, accomplished a great revolution in the State of Mary- 
land as well as in the United States generally. The vote of the 
State of Maryland disclosed an almost total absence of sym- 
pathy in the principles which prevailed in that election. The 
doctrine of secession had not much favor with either of the par- 
ties which had divided the State from the foundation of the 
Federal Government. But the right of coercion of a State, 
by that Government, had never been recognized by either, 
and the leading men on both sides had disclosed decided 

426 



RICHARD BENNETT CAR MICHAEL. 427 

opposition to it. Tiie sympathies of the State were with the 
South generally, and with Virginia in particular, when the 
prospect of separation began to be developed, after the elec- 
tion. Little doubt exists with any who observed the condi- 
tion of things at that period, that, if Virginia had seceded 
in the early part of the winter following, Maryland would 
have gone with her. Geographical relation, community of 
interests, of institutions, association, and every tie which 
binds States and peoples together, served to make their for- 
tunes one. 

These causes, and the consequences so natural to them, 
led to the jealousy which possessed the Federal authorities 
toward Maryland throughout the war, and to the continued 
and multiplied oppression by which the State was borne down 
to its very close. This, at least, is the charitable conclusion 
to be drawn from, the course and conduct of the Government 
in this relation, and no Government ever stood more in need 
of charity in finding a pretext for its tyranny to the people 
of a ".loyal State." For, notwithstanding her sjmipath}' was 
in the main the other way, her action, as a State organization 
in all the departments, was firmly in adherence to the Union. 

If statesmanship at Washington had not been so shallow, 
it would have discovered, what the people of the State had 
come to feel, long before the war broke out, that participation 
in the war on the side of the South, would lead inevitably to 
the sacrifice of the material interests of the State. When 
the people, in the first view of the situation, were ready to 
co-operate with Virginia in the movement of secession, they 
were under the sway of sympathy — of impulse to act with. 
those with whom they felt in common. Moreover, it was 
believed that co-operation in such a movement would carry 
along Kentucky and Missouri, and a general conviction pos- 
sessed every heart, that such concurrent action by these 
States would prevent the outbreak of war, and, after a time, 
bring about terms of conciliation between the Xorth and the 
South. But, while Virginia was debating the policy of sepa- 
ration, impulse in Maryland was giving way to reflection, 



428 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

and, when finally war was inevitable — wlien Mr. Lincoln, on 
the one side of the Potomac, had flung his banner to the breeze 
and called his hosts to arms, and Virginia, responsive on the 
other side, thundered forth her ordinance of secession — to the 
calm, sound, sober thought of Maryland, it was manifest she 
had no place but with the Union ; that place she held geo- 
graphically, and she assumed it politically. Her Governor, 
Hicks — though pledged, time and again, to individuals and to 
committees, in private and in public, to join the fortunes of 
the South, in the event of conflict between the North and the 
South — rallied to the Union ; and her Legislature, although 
Democratic, resolved that Maryland had no alternative but to 
adhere to the Union. 

Individual sympathy remained much with the South, but 
State purpose and policy was adhesion to the LTnion. The 
elections followed soon after, and disclosed heavy majorities 
in favor of the Union candidates. 

In this condition of things, the policy taken by the Federal 
Government was to treat the State as a conquered province, 
and her people as enemies. The civil power was overborne, 
and military rule established on its ruins. Citizens Avere sub- 
ject to the caprice of such characters as Butler, and Banks, 
and Bix, and were arrested and cast into prison without luar- 
rant of law, or form of trial. Hordes of spies and informers 
waited on the bidding of Federal chieftains ; and in that 
class, it was found, by, the capture of one of their camps by 
the Confederate forces, that the Governor, Hicks, had taken 
his becoming place. The Marshal of Police of the city of 
Baltimore was captured in his bed by a Federal regiment. 
The Police Commissioners of that city and the Mayor shared 
like fortune; and, as if to assure the people of the State there 
was no place or person which they could regard secure against 
the march of unbridled power, the Legislature were beleaguer- 
ed, captured, and transported to a prison in a distant State. 

The subject of this narrative. Judge Carmichael, at this 
time, was a Judge of one of the Circuits comprising the Coun- 
ties of Kent, Queen Anne, Caroline, and Talbot. Before the 



BICHARD BENNETT CARMICHAEL. 429 

beginning of these arbitrary proceedings, tbe spring terms in 
all these counties had been held. In the course of the sum- 
mer, military arrests were made in sundry cases in Queen 
Anne and Talbot Counties. On the approach of the fall 
elections, squads of the military were sent to both of them, 
to overawe the voters. Arrests were made, of persons for 
" disloyalty," who had not favored the Union candidate at 
the election. The Clerk of the Circuit Court for Queen Anne 
was seized and taken to the camp of a Federal regiment 
established near the village, and called to answer before a 
Federal Colonel, on the very day before the regular fall term 
of the Court. 

It was a time-honored custom, in this Court, for the Judge 
to charge the grand jury in respect of ofiences subject to 
their cognizance^ to which Judge Carmichael had conformed; 
and, as the proceedings of the Federal ofhcers had caused 
much distress and alarm throughout the jurisdiction, he had 
to perform or shrink from the duty belonging to the occasion. 

lie charged the grand jury, that every arrest, without 
" warrant of law," was arbitrary and unlawful, and that the 
parties thereto were subject to their cognizance. Bills of 
presentment followed, but the camp had been broken up and 
the regiment removed before proceedings from the Court 
could reach the offenders. 

The term of the Court in Talbot County followed in a fort- 
night after. In this county, wrongs similar to those presented 
in Queen Anne had been suffered ; and here the Judge charged 
the grand jury to the same effect, and in the same general 
terms as in Queen Anne, with similar results. One of the 
county papers made a gross misrepresentation of the terms 
and meaning of the charge to the grand jury. The purpose 
of this was so transparent that, at the instance of his friends, 
the Judge reduced his charge to writing, and gave it to the 
press. It was written out, as nearly as might be, in the very 
terms delivered, so that those who had heard could verify its 
identity when they should see it in print. So it is given 
here, in the simple didactic form in which it was the Judge's 



430 AMERICAN BASTILE, 

wont to discourse, " oi^e tenus" to tlie grand jury, in respect 
of tlieir duties. 

^^ Judge CarmichaeVs Charge to the Grand Jury of Talbot County, on 
Arbitrary Arrests, November Term, 1861. 

"Having now, gentlemen, charged you generally of the duties 
of your high office, here I would dismiss you to your chamber, 
if my duty did not require me to invite your notice to acts of 
outrage and violence unusual in this quarter. 

" Through the public papers and otherwise, it has come to my 
knowledge, that violations of law have been committed by per- 
sons holding themselves above the law, which, by tacit accord, for 
some reason have as yet escaped the cognizance of the authorities. 
Violent and dangerous injuries have been committed, upon your 
citizens, whilst the process of law has been forbidden' to reach 
the offender. Arrests have been made, utterly groundless as it 
turned out; but whether with cause or not, by persons having 
no legal competency to make arrests, and without ' warrant of 
law,' or process from legal authority. A squad of soldiers, with 
no pretence of aiithority but their arms, it is said, have invaded 
the homes of j'our fellow-citizens, and dragged them to their 
camp. There they have been detained as long as it suited the 
pleasure of their captors. 

"These are the cases to which your attention is directed — now 
a word about the law. And but for the very peculiar state of 
affairs, 1 should be content to leave you to the counsels of the 
State. But it belongs to every department to bear its share of 
duty in the administration of the law. Yours is imperative, 
mine is not less so. 

"Is there one in your panel here, where the law has been held 
supreme; where, twice in every year, from time immemorial, its 
ministrations have been conducted, who does not know that the 
facts stated, constitute offence against the law? 

"I have told you that your duties extended to every case of 
public wrong. The mandate of your solemn obligation requires 
that you make 'true presentment of all such matters as shall 
come to your knowledge,' and if all, then there is no exception, 
and your cognizance must be exercised over the cases mentioned, 



RICHARD BENNETT CAR MICHAEL. 431 

unless you find some dispensing power, of which I have found 
no mention in the law. 

"Offences are the acts of persons. Every person, public or 
private, high or low, is subject to the visitation of the law. 
Whether invested with the robes of power, or covered with 
humble rags, all are alike amenable to its sanctions. That 'the 
law ONLY is supreme in this land,' you have heard proclaimed by 
my honored predecessors, from this place, at every term. Here- 
tofore I have 80 pronounced — my duty now still bids me to re- 
peat the same to you, gentlemen, the Grand Inquest, its chosen 
ministers. 

"Violent and dangerous breaches of the public peace have oc- 
curred here aforetime. With such offences you are not un- 
familiar. They have received the prompt cognizance of your 
department, and have met the speedy and certain punishment 
Avhich the' law denounces upon all, without distinction. They 
are now not less obnoxious. lit regard to these, I need not add 
another word. 

"But arbitrary, illegal, and false imprisonments have been un- 
known to our modern history. In a practice of more than six- 
and-twenty years at the bar, throughout this circuit, and a ser- 
vice of a few years upon the bench, I have never known such a 
case — either by criminal presentment, or by civil action. Al- 
most every crime and misdemeanor, with this exception, have 
found persons wicked enough to commit them. It will strike 
you, how sacred the right of personal freedom has been held 
wnthin this jurisdiction, for more than a quarter of a century. 
And, you will be assured, there is ample redi'ess for its inva- 
sion — that it has been preserved thus inviolate. It is the he- 
reditary right of American freemen. It was the right of their 
ancestors, before American Independence. 

"Before that day, a British subject could not be arrested, but 
under process of law. An arrest and detention of his person 
was unlawful, unless made under 'process from the Courts, or 
under process from a legal officer, having the power to commit 
under his hand and seal.' 

" This process was required to be founded on oath, disclosing 
the cause of arrest. Indeed, so jealously was the liberty of the 
Bubject guarded, that it was held, at a very early day, by a high 



432 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

authority, such as Coke, that a felon could not be arrested upon 
the warrant of a Justice, until 'after indictment actually found.' 
This strictness, it is true, was combatted. But from that day, 
to the date of American Independence, the arrest of a British 
subject could not lawfullj^ be made, unless under the authority 
of judicial or justicial warrant. Made otherwise, it was 'false 
imprisonment;' an offence, M'hich an eminent English jurist de- 
nominates 'a heinous public crime,' for which, he says, 'the law 
demands public vengeance.' Every arrest without ' due process,' 
was regarded arbitrary, illegal, and despotic, and such as the min- 
isters, at the date of American Independence, dare not claim for the 
British crown. The assertion at this day, of such a power for the 
crown, would shake the British throne to its very foundations. 

"Exemption from the exercise of such power, is the birthright 
of Americans. They trace it back in the musty scrolls of the 
mother country for ages long past. It is inscribed, in letters of 
light, in the Constitution of Marj^land. This right may yet be 
found in the Constitution of the United States — the Supreme 
law — before which ever}^ person, potentate, and power in the 
United States must give place. 

" I will read it there, gentlemen. But first indulge me while 
I read a resolution of the first Congress, which explains why 
this, with other privileges of the citizen wei'e inscribed there. 
The reading will be both instructive and profitable. ' The Con- 
vention of a number of the States, having at the time of their 
adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent 
misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory 
and restrictive clauses should be added. And as extending the 
ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure 
the beneficent ends of its institution : Resolved by the Senate 
and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress 
assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the fol- 
lowing articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several 
States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States,' 
etc. By this reading you will observe that the Constitution as 
originally adopted by the Federal Convention, was without those 
'restrictive and declaratory clauses.' The Government had been 
imbued with all the powers intended to be delegated. Its 
framers had designed that these powers — all of them — should 
be exerted as occasion required, and none o.thers. But they had 



EICHARD BENNETT CAE MICHAEL. 433 

not expressed the prohibitions, Avhich were supposed to be im- 
ph'ed. When, however, it came about that the sovereign will 
was to breathe life into its being, 3-011 find a law — a limit, was 
imposed upon its powers simultaneously. When the Constitu- 
tion was referred to the States for ratification, with one accord 
they required the insertion of these articles, ' to prevent miscon- 
struction and abuse of the powers' already expressed. 

" There were some things they were not willing to leave to 
construction, for fear of misconstruction. There were powers 
which they regarded dangerous to put to use, without restric- 
tion, from their liability to abuse. Therefore it was that the 
first Congress submitted these restrictive clauses to the States 
for their adoption. Twelve were submitted to the States. Ten 
of them were adopted. Thej^ are the ten commandments; for- 
ever forbidding any and all the powers of the Government to 
infringe the rights of the citizen — to do by construction any- 
thing herein forbidden. There is 710 power to suspend any of 
these commandments, as in regard to the habeas corptis. There 
is no conflict of jurisdiction as now claimed between the execu- 
tive and legislative departments in regard to this great right. 
Here all the powers of Grovernment are forbidden. 

*' These are the ten : 

AKTICLES 

IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF THE 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 

"Proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of 
the States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitu- 
tion. 

Article 1. 

" Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof, or abridging the 
freedom of speech, or of the j^ress ; or the right of the people 
peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a re- 
dress of grievances. 

Article 2. 

"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a 
free State, the right of the people to keep, and bear arms, shall 
not be infringed. 
28 



434 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Article 3. 

"No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, 
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a 
manner to be prescribed by law. 

Article 4. 

" The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but upon proba- 
ble cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly 
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to 
be seized. 

Article 5. 

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless upon a presentment or indictment of a 
grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or 
in the militia, when in actual service in time of war, or public 
danger; nor shall any pei'son be subject for the same offence to 
be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled 
in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be de- 
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; 
nor shall private propert)^ be taken for public use, without just 
compensation. 

Article 6. 

" In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjo}- the right 
to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State 
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which 
district shall have been pi-eviously ascertained by law, afid to be 
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be con- 
fronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory pro- 
cess for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist 
ance of counsel for his defence. 

Article 7. 

" In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shaP 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be pre- 
served, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-exam- 
ined in any court of the United States, than according to the 
rules of the common law. 



KICHARD BENNETT CARMICHAEL. 435 

Article 8. 

" Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive tines im- 
posed, nor cruel and unusual jiunishments inflicted. 

Article 9. 

" The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall 
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the 
people. 

Article 10. . 

" The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con- 
Btitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 
States respectively, or to the people, 

" The 4th Article forbids the arbitrary arrest and false imprison- 
ment of the citizen. It guarantees to him the right heretofore 
enjoyed under the British Constitution. It prohibits 'unreason- 
able seizure ;' j^rohibits a warrant for seizure except upon 'prob- 
able cause;' and requires such cause to be shown under the sanc- 
tion of 'oath or aftirmation.' 

" Here is no room for misconstruction. The supreme law is ex- 
press in its terms. It is set up, b}^ its declared terms, as a bar- 
rier to the poioers to be in the State. It remains to us as a barrier 
against 'the powers that be.' 

" It has never been repealed, nor can be lawfull}^ repealed, ex- 
cept by the power which created the Government, and in the 
manner provided by the Constitution itself 

"This freedom from imprisonment 'without due process,' is 
absolute in the citizen, with only two exceptions. One, in which 
he is found in the very act of committing a felony, which obtains 
alike in England and this country; the other, where he has ex- 
changed the citizen for the soldier — 'in cases arising in the 
land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in 
the time of war or public danger.' 

" Your inquiries will enable you to ascertain if the arrests re- 
ported have, in fiict, been made, and, if j^ou find they have been 
made, whether they come under the excepted cases just stated. 

"If they have been made, and are not within the rule of these 
exceptions, then tl)ey are public wrongs. It is my duty so to 
charge you, and so I do charge you. 

"The circumstances in which we are, instruct me to remind you 



436 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

that your inquiries into, and action upon, this subject are to be 
conducted — unmoved by prejudice, unswerved by favor, and uu- 
awed by fear. 

"I cannot doubt that you will not be warped by prejudice on 
the one side, nor by favor on the other. As you q,vq freemen, you 
are required to swear that you will not be restrained by fear in 
the dischai'ge of your duty, A freeman should have no fear but 
of his God. The law is ordained by him. That commands what is 
right, and forbids what is wrong. It would be mockery, and I 
would not permit jow to take the oath to act without fear, if 
there was an earth 1}^ power to restrain your free will. 

"There may be others, besides the persons who committed the 
violations of law heretofore considered, who may be obnoxious 
to presentment. If any of 3'our citizens have instigated these 
groundless arrests, they are more guilty than those upon whom 
they have imposed. And it is hardly to be supposed that 
strangers amongst you would wantonly, and without suggestions 
by mischievous pei'sons, molest and harass your people. Such 
persons are liable for conspiracy. But your diligent and im- 
partial inquiry will ascertain the truth. 

" I am admonished, gentlemen, by former misconstructions, to 
say to you that my instructions to you are not moved by political 
or partisan bias. 

"If I have declared to you the law as I understand it, you will 
remember it is under the same solemn sanction by which you are 
bound. If there be a class or party of persons who are banded 
together to oppose or violate the laws, it is my duty to animad- 
vert upon their acts. If the fiicts to which I have alluded are 
true, their obvious tendency is not only to disturb the peace of 
society, but to subvert the very foundations of the Government 
whose laws both you and myself are sworn to administer. 

"With the condition of our unhappy country, the evils which 
exist, their causes, and those who are to be blamed, I have 
nothing to say Aem I have my own — a very strong opinion. 
Others entertain another opinion. They are entitled to their 
own, and I am equally entitled to mine. I would not trespass 
upon my own sense of propriety by alluding to these sul-yects 
here. But I should feel myself, and should be regarded by 
others, unworthy this place, if I should fail to charge you of 
offences against law, be the offenders who they may." 



EICHAED BENNETT CAR MICHAEL. 4o7 

In a few days after the publication of this charge the very- 
air was thick with rumors that the hand of tlie Federal power 
would be laid upon the Judge. The guilty author of the 
after outrage was back and forth, more than once, to General 
Dix's headquarters. But the time for such outrage had not 
yet come. The fate and fortunes of men had not yet fallen 
into the ruthless hands which iiever staid for choice betwixt 
right and wrong. The jurisdiction in such cases yet re- 
mained in the department where the " little bell " inaugurated 
the proceedings. 

It was privately said that the little bell had rung, but, 
that before his order was issued, Mr. Seward took counsel 
of his duty in the premises, and being advised to read the 
obnoxious "charge" and decide for himself, upon considera- 
tion he dismissed the subject, with those who had come pan- 
dering it to his embrace. 

But the assertion of the Constitution and the law, in con- 
Btraint of the power which dispensed with both at pleasure, 
was an offence, for which, in the course of time, the Judge 
Buffered a bloody visitation. When, six months later, he 
came to hold the spring term of the court in Talbot County, 
after the court had been in session for more than a week, in 
the midst of the trial of a cause, and while a witness was 
under examination before the jury, he was set upon by a 
gang of ruffians from the city of Baltimore, dragged from 
the bench, and beaten and hacked, until he was brought sense- 
less to the floor and drenched in his blood. And still the 
violence was not intermitted, until one of the party, less 
brutal than the rest, interposed, and protested it should cease. 

If the transaction was such as to shock all civilized men, 
there was this to sanctify it to the favor of the loi/al — that it 
was conducted by Mr. Provost Marshal McPhail, a special 
and confidential agent of the War Department, for Maryland. 
His was a peculiar jurisdiction there, which commanded the 
service of the General Commandant, but held itself indepen- 
dent of that officer. 

Marshal McPhail came to Easton (the county seat of Tal- 



438 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

bot County) witli no other aids to make the arrest of Judge 
Carmichael, but a handful of Baltimore roughs, whom he 
designated his deputies, and a Colonel and some subalterns 
of the Federal army. But after a survey of the ground, he 
telegraphed orders to General Dix for a part of his command, 
and he, obedient to the high behest, sent them forward with 
a steamer, and thereby shared a part of the glory of the 
achievement. Occupying a position of much distinction, the 
Marshal has suffered deep reproach in violating the temple 
of justice and its minister on the bench, and if that was his 
choice, he will leave the stain to follow his name forever, 
because there was no obstacle to a quiet arrest from the 
moment he reached Easton. On Saturday evening he arrived 
with his deputies, and Judge Carmichael remained alone in 
the hotel that night, and until noon on Sunday. He had 
heard of the advent of this high oiJicial, and the reputed 
object of his mission, and waived an engagement to spend 
that night and the Sabbath in the country with a friend, lest 
the invasion of his premises by the Provost Marshal should 
alarm the peace of his family. In that proceeding some of 
his friends have alleged that the Marshal was controlled by 
the guilty author of the order issued for Judge Carmichaers 
arrest. '- 

Tlie extremity to which the outrage was carried, was jus- 
tified on two grounds — one true, the other false. The first 
was that, when the Provost Marshal introduced himself as 
Mr. McPhail, and announced his mission, the Judge (never 
having seen him before) did not know him, and said, " Sir, I 
do not recognize your authority." The second, that he 
made resistance. McPhail said, " I arrest you." The Judge 
replied, "Who are you?" McPhail returned, "I am Mr. 
McPhail — I am the Provost Marshal." The Judge rejoined, 
" I do not recognize your authority." McPhail added, " I 
have the force to effect the arrest." The Judge said, "You 
shall see," and called for the Sheriff; but the Sheriff had 
escaped before the Marshal appeared, and with him his 
deputy. 



RICHAUD BEXNETT CAR MICHAEL. 439 

The court-room had been cleared of most of the bystanders 
by the summons of the hotel dinner-bell, before the invaders 
appeared. That moment was seized for the outrage. The 
few remaining were arrested or driven from the court-room 
by the deputies and the Federal officers, who partook in the 
outrage, by the show and threats of pistols. The Judge sat 
unmoved, and now, when there was no means of resistance, 
or indication of an act so vain, one of the deputies mounted 
the platform of the bench, and seizing the Judge by the 
beard, called out in a tone of insolent authority, " Come out 
o'here!" This was more than could be borne. There is 
a limit at which prudence and dignity can exert control no 
longer. At the foul touch of his assailant, the Judge in an 
instant was erect, and flung him aside, and kicked him oft' 
the platform of the bench. But the party did not wait for 
this retaliation by the Judge to begin their part, but as he 
arose and threw oft' his assailant, at that instant they com- 
menced to deliver their blows upon his bald, bare head, with 
the hammers of their clubbed pistols, and proceeded until he 

was knocked senseless down The pretext of resistance 

was put forth to soothe the indignation manifested by some 
of the " loyal citizens," when the news went abroad of au 
outrage so unparalleled. 

These facts are given in detail, so that if a time do ever 
return when the law is restored to the respect, love, and 
support of the people, they may be warned to what extremity 
an unbridled power in the state will outrage those who in- 
terpose the authority of the law for the protection of society. 

A surgeon was permitted to dress the wounds of the 
Judge. He was denied the privilege of going to his room, 
under guard, for a change of clothing. This was, perhaps, 
well-judged caution. For the sight of his bloody garments 
might have stirred the hearts of the people to mutiny, 
despite the military array vouchsafed by General Dix. 

Judge Carmichael was imprisoned more than six months ; 
yet his ofl^ence was not ever read or repeated or intimated 
to him. He was first lodged in Fort McHenry. Thence, 



440 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

after the lapse of six weeks, lie was deported and confined 
at Fort Lafayette for more than two months. Here he suf- 
fered, from confinement in a damp casemate, an attack of 
acute rheumatism, which has left him permanently lame. 

While imprisoned at Fort Lafayette, he addressed a letter 
to the President, asking for his discharge, and enclosed to 
him a copy of his charge to the Grand Jury of Talbot 
County, at aSTovember Term, 1861. (A copy of this letter is 
appended.) "With him, many others were taken to that post 
from Fort McIIenry, and a list of tlieir names from Brigadier 
General Morris, with the charge or charges under which 
each was held, opposite his name. Opposite the name of 
Judge Oarmichael was entered, " iSTo charge at these head- 
quarters." 

From Fort Lafayette he was conveyed under guard to 
Fort Delaware, but no charge against him accompanied the 
papers delivered with him at that Fort. Here he remained 
from the 23d Septeml^er to the 4th December, when he was 
released without condition. 

On the 10th of December, after he had been at home a 
few days, he addressed a letter to the President, renewing 
his demand for the cause of his arrest, and for the name or 
names of those by whose agency it had been ordered. (A 
copy of this letter is also appended.) The President never 
condescended a reply to either of his letters. 

His release returned him to his duties on the bench. The 
law he was appointed to administer was unchanged, and no 
question against him had been made after arrest, in respect 
of his instruction to the grand juries on the subject of 
Federal wrongs by military officers. During his imprison- 
ment, a wholesale seizure of citizens in Caroline County, one 
of the counties of his circuit, had been made. 

On Saturday, preceding the Monday when the term in 
Kent began, in the spring of 1863, the editor of the Demo- 
cratic newspaper at Chestertown was arrested. General 
Lockwood, of the Federal army, distinguished his military 
career by this exploit. 



EICHAED BENNETT CAE MICHAEL. 441 

Judge Carmichael charged tlie grand juries in tliese coun- 
ties in respect of these outrages. Omitting the particular 
facts in the cases, his charge is here inserted as read to the 
juries. 

He had taken the precaution to have his instructions in 
writing, before delivery, so as to furnish them to the press, 
in case of misrepresentation : 

'"''Charge of Judge Carmichael^ at Caroline and Kent Counties^ 

in 1863, on the subject of Arbitrary and Unlawful Arrests. 

" Early after the outbreak of this unhappy war, it fell to 
my duty to charge the grand juries in Queen Anne and 
Talbot Counties. Persons pretending to act under Federal 
authority, had seized upon citizens without ' warrant of 
law,' and cast them into prison without the form of trial. 

1 should be content here to dismiss this subject, and to send 
a copy of the charge delivered in those counties, as my in- 
struction to you, gentlemen, in respect of your duty in this 
relation ; but that many pretexts have been set up for such 
proceedings, which may tend to disarm the law of its obliga- 
tions upon you to take cognizance of them. 

" That charge contained little more than a recital of the 
law applicable to the subject now before you, including ex- 
tracts from the Constitution of the United States, together 
with some historic reference to enforce its obligation. 

" If it contained the IS^w, then, and for those juries, the 
same is the law now, and for you, gentlemen. To the same 
efi'ect have several of the courts in ISTorthern States held 
the law within a few months, and many eminent jurists have 
lent the authority of their names in maintenance of its obli- 
gation. Is it possible for any to gainsay it ? If it is so written 
in the Constitution, and if that which is written there be the 
law, that a citizen is not liable to arrest without ' warrant of law,' 
then he cannot be arrested without legal process, unless the 
Constitution has been repealed by the power which brought 
it into being, or unless it have been deposed by an usurper. 

"That it has not been repealed by the authority which 



442 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

created it, need not be said to you, because that could not be 
done without your individual agency in part. If you say 
it has been deposed, be that your part — not mine. Until a 
new regime is declared^ my obligation stands in the terms and 
meaning of my oath, 'to support the Constitution of the 
United States,' and ' to bear true allegiance to the State of 
Maryland.' Your obligation is the same, and being the 
same, it is not necessary to say it is binding on your con- 
sciences, and ought to be supreme over your wills. It would 
be a disrespect, of which I shall not be guilty, to persuade 
your performance of a duty to which you have been sworn. 

" AVhat are the pretexts set up to justify the exercise of the 
power of arbitrary arrests? 3Iartial law, it is said, suspends 
the civil law, and where it obtains, the process of the civil law is dis- 
pensed with. Let it be granted that such is the prerogative 
of the law martial, and how does the concession afiect the 
question before you? Of what application is martial law in 
this jurisdiction? Martial law does not extend beyond the 
field of military operations and its immediate surroundings. 

"Beyond these limits it may not be, and never was claimed 
to extend. Is it now claimed for the President, that he may 
proclaim the whole country his camp, and throughout all its 
borders his will taken in the place of law? J^one have yet 

gone to this extent It /s allowed to the scene of actual 

war, but is claimed only for the necessities of the field. 

" An army in the field must be surrounded by defined limits 
or lines, as they are called, to be secure against defection from 
within, or from surprise or espionage from without. These 
lines are commonly declared, so that deserters may be pre- 
vented from going out, and spies from coming in. This, 
gentlemen, you understand. In such limits, the laws of war, 
or martial law, prevails, as it is proper it should. But here 
there is no enemy — no army — no field of war. ''Inter anna 
silent leges;' but where arms are not, there the law obtains. 
If there be any treason here, the courts of law are open, and 
unobstructed, to punish any who may have incurred such 
guilt, and their jurisdiction extends to that olfence. If there 



RICHARD BENNETT C A R M I C 11 A E L. 443 

be no field of war here, there can be no martial law. There 
is law, I trust, here — the civil law, whose ministers yon are. 
The maintenance of martial law, where it belongs, carmot 
dispense with the obligations of the civil, where it belongs. 
A trespass by a military otheer here, is the same oftence as a 
trespass by a private citizen. 

"Another of the pretexts is 'necessity.' It is a necessity 
'•that the President should arrest whom he will, even if no actual 
violafion of law hare been committed: a necessity incident to war.'' 
And how, or why incident to war, more than to peace? 
When before was it suggested in this country, or in any land 
where law has held sway ? It never has given sanction to 
any act in a land of hiw. It is the plea of force against law. 
It is the argument of an unlicensed will, which heeds no 
counsel but its own behests, and hurries to its ends, but recks 
not of tlie means. The powers of this Government are ex- 
press and defined, and cannot be exerted otherwise than as 
prescril)ed. 

'•To preserve the citizen secure against the exercise of con- 
structive powers, the Government was instituted in a written 
charter. This forlnds his arrest, except upon warrant bear- 
ing the signet of the sovereign will. This signet is not con- 
fided to the Executive power. It belongs elsewhere. And 
except the seal of the proper officer, there is no sign which 
can challenge the citizen to submit to personal constraint. 
The liiw is absolute in its authority. Its officers are not, and 
no necessity can make them. They are designed to be the 
servants of the people, not their masters ; the ministers of 
the law, not of their own wills. What they do as ministers 
of the law, is the act of the law, and binding upon all. 
What they do otherwise, is the act of the private person, 
and of no authority. All the sanction they can derive from 
necessity to act in violation of law, is the same which belongs 
to any private person, and that is just none at all. But I 
need not proceed further on this head. The exigency of the 
law is the only necessity known to our Government. 

"But, most extraordinary of all, it is said the form of the 



444 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

President'' s oath affords sanction for the power of arbitrary arrest. 
This requires of liim ' to preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution.' Hence, it is argued, he may do whatever he 
thinks proper to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu- 
tion ; that the means to be employed, and the manner of 
their use, are in his discretion. Stated in plain terms, the 
proposition means that the President may construe the Con- 
Btitution in contradiction of its terms and meaning, and act 
upon that construction, because he is sworn to preserve, pro- 
tect, and defend it. It would be waste of time and insult tc 
your understandings to discuss the proposition. There is 
nothing so false that may not be asserted for truth, and there 
is hardly a truth which has not been questioned. But let 
us for a moment delay to apply this proposition to the sub- 
ject before you — arljitrary arrests. The Constitution forbids 
arrests 'without process of law.' To preserve, protect, and 
defend the Constitution, the proposition asserts that the Pres- 
ident may arrest without process. AYhat the Constitution says 
he shall not^ the proposition claims he may do. He swears to 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, which forbids 
him to arrest a citizen without ' warrant of law.' "With one 
hand upon the Bible, and with the other upon the Constitution, 
before his God and the country, he swears. Yet, we are told, 
no truth is meant by these fixcts, and only seeming in the 
ceremony. Can any man of truth or conscience hear of it 
without a shudder ? It is usurpation in the name of the Con- 
stitution — it is falsehood — sacrilege in the name of the Most 
High. In the conceits of fatuous senility — in the inventions 
of corrupt cupidity — in the pleadings of fawning sycophancy 
it may jSnd place. Nowhere else. 

" But it has been said, we ought to presume the President to 
be ic'se and good, and so, being in his'hands, this power is safe. 
Is this a safe presumption, in a land of law and liberty ? If, 
liowever, that be conceded, would such a power be safe in the 
hands of every subaltern in his appointment? Can the Pres- 
ident impart, by the breath of his nostrils, wisdom and good- 
ness into the lieart of every man employed to do his will ? 



EICHAKD BENNETT CAEMICHAEL. 445 

Can he delegate these godlike qualities to every provost 
marshal and deputy provost in the land ? And if to all these 
questions we should yield assent, still it \q forbidden to arrest a 
citizen without ' warrant of law.' And my reading instructs 
me that it belongs nowhere in all the powers and persons of this 
Government to do what is forbidden ; and that whatever is 
done which is forbidden, is wrong, and demands your cogni- 
zance. And now I dismiss you to your chamber." 

The utterance of such instructions to the grand juries 
caused high resentment amongst ^'' loyal" men. Judge Car- 
michael was denounced in several of the Republican news- 
papers, and efforts were renewed to bring down upon him the 
arm of Federal visitation ; but the effect of the former out- 
rage was satisfactory. It had disarmed the State jurisdiction 
of all power to hold a Federal oiffcer or agent amenable to 
the offended law. The grand juries bowed to the necessity, 
and forbore presentments in the cases to which their cogni- 
zance was invoked. In this condition of things, when he 
found his position to be one in which he could render no ser- 
vice in the administration of the law, except by the suffer- 
ance of a power which transgressed at pleasure, and sustained 
its wrongs by the authority of brute force, Judge Carmi- 
chael resigned his place on the bench, and retired to the 
quiet pursuits of his farm. Into this retreat, multiplied 
testimonials of jDublic favor have followed him. If he suffered 
wrongs in the service of the State, which the State was 
.powerless to punish, no man was ever more proudly vindi- 
cated by his fellow-citizens in the proofs they have tendered 
him of trust and confidence. 

Letter to the President of the United States. 

" Fort Lafayette, 21st July, 1862. 
"To Ilis Excellency the President: 

" Sir : AYill you allow the complaint of a citizen who is with- 
out redress, except in the exercise of Executive authority? For 
two months past, I have been imprisoned ; yet, to this hour, from 
no person under the Executive authority has an imputation of 
offence been made to me. 



446 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

" This imprisoument has been in military Forts of the United 
States, which imposes the conclusion it is under Federal authority 
I was seized and held. 

"It has come to my knowledge that representations, by persons 
friendly to your Administration, who have been conversant with 
all my life — now far advanced — have been volunteered in my 
behalf; the purpose of which was to obtain my release. With- 
out knowing what these representations are, I am content to 
refer to them for vindication. 

" Since my transfer to this place, my attention has been called 
to a slip from one of the Baltimore journals — ' The Sun' — to 
the effect that my arrest and imprisonment were for 'treason, 
committed in the discharge of official duty.' 

" To this, I cannot make issue, as no authority was given for 
the suggestion. But, by way of answer to all such imputations, 
I forward, herewith, to your Excellency, a copy of a charge 
delivered to the Grand Juiy of Talbot County. In this is con- 
tained all my official action in relation to the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

"Your Excellency will perceive that the whole extent of my 
offending is the claim for the maintenance of the Constitution of 
the United States as the supreme law 

" If in this there be any treason, then, indeed, I cannot claim 
to be released ; but if the law be as declared in that paper, then 
is it too much to ask, in the name of the law, that I be dis- 
charged from these bonds? 

" With all respect, I am your Excellency's most obedient ser- 
vant, 

(Signed) Eichd. Bti Carmichael." 

Second Letter to the President. 

"To His Excellency the President, Washington, D. C. : 

"More than six months ago, I was seized and imprisoned b}^ 
persons who were or pretended to be agents of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. U^ntil the 3d instant, I was detained in Forts under 
command of Federal military officers. On the evening of that 
day, Lieutenant-Colonel D. D. Perkins, commanding at Fort Dela- 
ware, where I was then confined, handed me a telegram, of which 
the following is a coj)y : 



EICHARD BENNETT CARMICHAEL. 447 

'"Dated War DeparTxMent, December 2, 1862. 
" * To the Commandant, Port Delawai-e : 

" ' The Secretary of War directs that you discharge Judge Car- 
michael from custody. Eeport receipt of this. 

(Signed) E. D. Townsend, 

Ass't Adj. Gen.' 

" On the morning of the 4th instant, on a pass to proceed 
thence with my baggage, I took my way home, having no reason 
for my release signified by the commandant at Fort Delaware, 
further than the' exigency of the foregoing order contained in 
the copy of the Secretary's telegram. 

"My seizure on the 27th of May last, and my continued im- 
prisonment, were made without cause, imputed by the agents 
partaking therein 

"M}' discharge, in the manner above stated, in connection with 
these facts, indicates that the authorities with tardy progress 
have reached this point in my case, viz., that the accusation 
against me, and the accuser (if there be any,) have been discov- 
ered false. 

"In similar cases, no report of proceedings has appeared, by 
which the Government has undertaken to vindicate its own 
honor or the rights of the citizen. In mine, therefore, I can ex- 
pect none. Every case has its own griefs. Your time shall not 
be occupied by a recital of mine. Such as belonged to my civil, 
political, and official relations were addressed to you long time 
ago by a venerated Senator from my State, the Hon. James A. 
Pearce, with no apparent efi'ect but to enhance the vigor of exist- 
ing outrage. 

" Those which concern the more delicate — which have visited 
so many fair homes in Maryland with dismay and sorrowing — 
shall not be traced into mine, to move compliance with my 
reasonable request. As an American citizen — in the name 
of the 'Constitution — I ask to be informed on the following 
jioints : 

" 1st. Is there any ' information' lodged against me before the 
Fc'deral authorities, and if yea, w^hat? 

"2d. The name or names of the persons giving the same, and 
the specifications? 



448 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" 3d. By whose order, in fact^ (not by intendment,) were the 
seizure and detention of my person ? 

"My object in addressing your Excellency, is to obtain the 
information by which I may apply such measure of redress in 
my own case as may be meet in respect of the wrongs done mo 
and the actual guilt of the wrong-doers. 

" I am your Excellencj^'s most obedient servant, 

(Signed) Eichard Bt. Carmichael. 

« Belle-Vue, 10th December, 18G2." 



JAMES M. WILLIAMS. 

JAMES M. WILLIAMS resides at Spring Garden, Jeffer- 
son County, Illinois. 

On the 1st of September, 1862, he was arrested in his house, 
by a squad of thirteen armed men, commanded by a Captain 
Davis, who gave as authority for the arrest, " orders " from 
Deputy Marshal Major Board, but did not show them. 
While remonstrating against the illegality of his arrest, he 
permitted himself to be quietly taken, counselling his friends, 
who were congregating, (many of them quite clamorous in 
their declarations to rescue him from the hands of the officer,) 
to keep quiet, and not disturb the public peace ; deeming it 
better that one should suffer " even unto death," than that 
the community should be thrown into a tumult, and the blood 
of many should be shed. 

An hour was granted him, by the Captain, in which to 
adjust his affairs, and comfort his family. He was then 
taken to Tamaroa, twenty miles distant, by rail, handcuffed 
for forty-eight hours, and placed, with other prisoners from 
Southern Illinois, on a special car in waiting, and guarded 
by a detachment of soldiers with fixed bayonets. Orders 
were given to shoot him, if he attempted to elude the vigi- 
lance of his custodians. 

Thus guarded, he was transported to Washington, D. C, 
and incarcerated, with fifteen others, in room ISTo. 16, in the 
Old Capitol Prison. 

Here his fare 

.... "was such as captive's tearg 
Have moistened many a thousand years, 
Since man first pent his fellow-men 
Like brutes within an iron den." 
29 449 



450 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

After an imprisonment of two months, Mr. "Williams was 
released by taking the oath of allegiance, and placing him- 
self under bonds. As was usual in other cases, no charges 
or specifications were ever made against him, nor any trial 
accorded him. He was discharged, and left to " guess " the 
reason, if any, for his arrest and confinement. 



HOIT. DAVID SHEEAK 

THE arrest of Hon. David Slieean, at Galena, Illinois, on 
the 28th of August, 1862, was one among the many 
wanton and inexcusable acts of despotic power committed 
during the Administration of the late Abraham Lincoln. 
Mr. Sheean entered into partnership with John A. Rawlins, 
Chief of Staff to General Grant, and at present Secretary of 
War, in the practice of law, in 1858, and continued the partner- 
ship until the time of his arrest. He had been twice elected City 
Attorney of Galena, and once its Mayor — running far ahead 
of his ticket. As a lawyer, he stood high in his profession. 

For honesty and honor his character was proverbial. 
The pride of his political and personal friends, he was 
esteemed and respected by all who knew him. Although 
an uncompromising Democrat, his bearing toward his oppo- 
nents was candid and courteous, commanding their respect 
even during that period of frenzied passion which marked 
the inauguration of the late war. 

A resident of Illinois from his childhood, he was opposed 
to the war, not from any sympathy with the South, but 
from principle. His opposition went no farther than the 
expression of his opinions to those who desired to hear them, 
and this right he maintained from the beginning, upon all 
occasions, and under every circumstance. 

On the evening of the 28th of August, the United States 
Marshal, assisted by the Sheriff of Galena, arrested Mr. 
Sheean in his office, without an}^ warrant, or other authority, 
save the following telegram from Washington City : 

" Washington, August 27, 1862. 
*' To J. E. Jones, United States Marshal, Chicago, Illinois. 
; "You will arrest David Sheean, lawyer, at Galena, for disloyal 

451 



452 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

practices, and convey him to Fort Lafayette until further 
ordered. 

" By order of the Secretary of War. 

(Signed) L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate." 

"What the " disloyal practices " were, Mr. Sheean w^as never 
informed, but they may be readily inferred from the follow- 
ing circumstances. 

Every community, at that time, had its " loyal " bully, to 
regulate the opinions of Democrats, and incite mobs to acts 
of violence. Cowards and sneaks in ordinary times, they 
became heroes when numbers backed them in assaults upon 
single individuals. Galena had such in the persons of two 
brothers, named Harris. They assaulted a poor Irishman on 
the streets of Galena, because he refused to enlist unless he 
was paid his bounty in advance. Remarking that A. B., who 
had enlisted, had not yet got his bounty, and asserting his 
right to state this, they beat him most shamefully ; then, 
with a howling mob at their backs, dragged him senseless to 
the County Jail, telling the Sherift' he had been discouraging 
enlistment^, and must be imprisoned. That official being a 
" loyal " man, without any further authority, closed the door 
of a felon's cell on him. As soon as he recovered sufficiently, 
he sent to Mr. Sheean for relief. A writ of habeas corpus was 
immediately applied for, but the "loyal" Judge Sheldon, of 
that Circuit, had seen a telegraphic despatch to the "New 
York Tribune," that persons discouraging enlistments were 
to be arrested, and refused the writ on the ground that he 
had heard the prisoner was guilty of that oft'ence. 

In vain did Mr. Sheean point out the fact that the prisoner's 
petition stated he was guilty of no offence, and was impris- 
oned without affidavit or complaint filed against him. In 
vain did he urge the utter insecurity of liberty, even of the 
Judge himself, under such ruling ; for this same Judge had 
declared in a public speech, that he who talked about the 
Constitution in those days should be marked as a traitor. 
Finding the writ of habeas corpus practically abolished by a 
partisan Judge, a trespass suit, for false imprisonment, for 



DAVID SHEEAK 453 

ten thousand dollars damages, was then commenced against 
the Harris brothers and the Sheriff, who, being naturally 
cowards, now became alarmed at the turn matters were 
taking. They fancied they had every Democrat chosen for 
imprisoDment, and had already got a second victim in the 
jail, and if not cheated, would soon fill it. But a claim of 
damages for false imprisonment before a jury brought them 
to their senses. 

They ceased to send any more to jail, and sought the 
advice of E. B. Washburne, member of Congress from the 
district, as to how they should rid themselves of the suit. 
Now was Washburne's opportunity. Sheean was bold and 
fearless, placing himself in the pathway of loyal terrorism, 
and inspiring others with courage. If he were stricken 
down, the road would be clear to trample upon others. "Wash- 
burne had the ear of the " Government." He could direct 
its right arm, the Secretary of War. Armed with such in- 
fluence and a certified transcript of the trespass suit, he de- 
parted for Washington on his devilish errand. The forego- 
ing telegram was sent back the day after his arrival. TJie 
suit icas dismissed fomvant of prosecution, while Mr. Sheean 
was in Fort Lafayette, the plaintiff' being then in jail. But 
on his return home he commenced the suit again, and had 
the satisfaction of hearing the verdict guilty pronounced 
against the Harris brothers, by a jury selected by a deputy 
of that Sheriff, and a judgment of damages upon the verdict 
entered by that Judge. 

The arrest of Sheean was made so secretly, that but 
two of his friends knew of the occurrence, until he was 
far out of the way. The Marshal and his assistant, know- 
ing his popularity, feared that a disturbance might be made, 
and desired to conduct him from his ofiice to the train 
through an unfrequented street ; but receiving his pledge 
that no trouble should occur, he was permitted to go the 
usual route. Arriviiig at the railroad depot, he found 
the instigators of his arrest had assembled to witness the 
eflect of it upon him. A smile of satisfaction played upon 



454 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

tlieir countenances. Tliey stared at their victim witli a feel- 
ing of triumph. 

He returned it with a look of proud defiance, feeling a 
loathing contempt for them. But few, however, of the Re- 
publicans of Galena justified the proceedings. The lai'ger 
portion of them felt it was wrong. The whole community, 
with but a few dishonorable exceptions, declared that he was 
the innocent victim of Harris and Washburne. Even the offi- 
cer who arrested him declared afterward that no act of his life 
gave him so much pain as the arrest of Mr. Sheean. Being 
unprepared for the journey, he desired time to obtain funds, 
and write a letter to a friend, directing him to take charge 
of his afi^airs. But in such haste had the arrest to be made, 
that it was denied him. On arriving, under guard, in New 
York, the "Inner Temple," with its prison cells and iron- 
grated windows, at the police headquarters, became his tene- 
ment until the prisoners' hack was obtained to convey him to 
Fort Hamilton. Arriving there. Lieutenant Colonel Burke's 
receipt discharged him from the custody of the Marshal, and 
placed him under military authority. Then, conducted be- 
tween two files of armed soldiers, he was conveyed across the 
channel to that silent tomb of living heroes — Fort Lafayette. 

Thus guarded he was taken into the presence of the com- 
mandant, who divested him of his watch, money, and other 
valuables, and then subjected his person and baggage to a 
strict search. He was then sent to the battery, and furnished, 
like the other prisoners, with an iron cot, a straw mattress, 
and a blanket, there to await "further orders." 

To the spirit of JNlr. Sheean, and others there like him, it was 
a long and weary waiting. Marched to and from their meals 
like felons, and guarded by armed sentinels while eating — 
watched by day and night by the tools of despotism — re- 
stricted to a limited intercourse with each other — insult- 
ed daily by an overbearing soldiery, and forced to submit 
to rules designed to degrade and humiliate, the plan was 
well calculated to break down the boldest spirit, and bring 
it lacerated and bleeding to the foot of power. Galling 



DAVID SHEEAN. 455 

as it was, Mr. Sheean bore up under it without complaint, 
and, conscious of his integrity, defied its influence. On the 
9th day of September, 1862, that lackey of tyranny, L. 0. 
Turner, who had been invested by his master with the title 
of Judge Advocate, accompanied by his clerk, visited the 
Fort on one of his inquisitorial expeditions, seeking what in- 
formation he could get from the prisoners, and reporting it 
to Washington. 

Mr. Sheean was ordered before him, and, after the custom- 
ary salutations, the following colloquy took place : 

Turner. ." Well, have you anything to say ? " 

Sheean. "I wrote you a letter from Chicago, inquiring 
of what I was accused, and who was my accuser. I have 
received no answer ; I would be pleased to get that informa- 
tion." 

Turner. " I received your letter, (looking cunningly ;) don't 
you know of what you are accused ? " 

Sheean. " I do not." 

Turner. " Well, now, couldn't you guess ? " 

Sheean. " I have n't the remotest idea, sir. I supposed 
when a man was arrested he would be informed of the cause, 
and at whose instance; not be required to guess." 

Turner. " You commenced a trespass suit against Harris, 
I believe ? " 

Sheean. "I did." 

Turner. " Was your client wealthy ? Did you make any 
agreement about fees ? " 

Sheean. " N'o ; my client was a poor man ; I thought a 
great wrong had been done him. I did not ask him for fees, 
or expect any ; I acted from principle, and would do the same 
again." 

Turner. "Are you willing to take the oath ? You are a 
lawyer, I believe, and have taken the oath to support the 
Constitution ; hut it is a little different noiv f " 

Sheean. " I have not seen the oath you speak of, and do 
not know what it is. The oath I have taken, I am willing 
to take again upon a proper occasion ; but I ^^'ould not take 



456 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

that now as a condition of release from this place, or volun- 
tarily submit to any other condition that would imply wrong 
on my part." 

Turner. " That is all we want of you, sir ; you can return 
to your quarters." 

Sheean. " Then you will give me no further informa- 
tion ? " 

Turner. " That is all— that is all, sir." 

Mr. Sheean was then remanded in charge of an orderly to 
his quarters. Finding he could get no information from 
Turner, he wrote to the Secretary of War, urging his right 
to he informed of the accusation, and the accusers against 
him, if any there were ; but no response came to him, or to 
others who had written, except to a negro named Steve, who 
had been taken upon a blockade-runner and put at cooking 
in the Fort. Steve was an ardeut rebel ; declared he would 
take " no oaf to de Yankees," and gloried in the fighting 
qualities of " Massa Stonewall." Becoming tired of his lim- 
ited sphere in the cook-room, he took the advice of one of 
the prisoners, and wrote a letter to the Secretary of War, 
informing him that he was a " colored man," and desired to 
be released. The return mail brought an order for his dis- 
charge, and he was set at liberty. The negro could readily 
receive attention, but the unfortunate white man was doomed 
to wait. 

It is difficult to realize the situation of the prisoners at 
that time. It was before the fall elections of 1862, which, to 
a great extent, burst open the doors of American Bastiles. 
The Administration had laid a reckless hand upon thousands. 
The tinkling of the " little bell " was heard on every hand. 
The people were becoming accustomed to it, and by their 
silence apparently approved it. Those within Fort Lafayette 
well knew that despotism would not stop at depriving men 
of their liberty. Some advance steps would be taken. 
Blood would soon be required to keep alive the terrorism 
created, and executions would speedily follow. The prison- 
ers realized this to the fullest extent, and frequently talked 



DAVID SHEEAN. 457 

about it, eachi marking out for himself a line of conduct iu 
that event. Relief from outside they could not procure ; they 
were tightly held in the iron grasp of power, and not a mur- 
mur of complaint could reach their friends. The walls of the 
33astile were dumb ; its inmates were gagged, and as com- 
pletely separated from the people as the living from the dead. 
Their letters to their friends containing hostile sentiments 
toward the " Government," or any prominent member of it, 
were sent to "Washington, and filed away as evidence of trea- 
son. Those relating to their treatment were refused admis- 
sion to the mail and returned to the writer. 

The extent to which the latter was carried may readily be 
seen from the following extract, marked objectionable, and 
returned to the writer : 

"It is not very generally healthy among the prisoners. 
Should we have serious sickness added to our other afiiictions, 
we shall, without hesitation, avail ourselves of your kind- 
ness." 

This letter was addressed to Mrs. Gelston, who, togethei' 
with Mr. Hopkins, living near the Fort, had, more than once, 
gladdened the prisoners' hearts by sending delicacies which 
could not be procured within the Fort. It was in reply to 
her note, saying that, if any of the prisoners were sick, slae 
would be happy to send them anything that would relieve 
them ; that she " could not release, but could relieve." 

But the result of the fall elections brought a feeling of 
relief. In it, the prisoners heard the tramp of millions com- 
ing to their rescue. Who can say that their fears would not 
have been realized had those elections resulted difterently ? 
The " Government " now dared not try its victims, for that 
would reveal its villany ; but, as a condition of release, ex- 
acted an oath from them that would secure it against legal 
proceedings. Many a brave heart, sick with " hope deferred," 
yielded to the terms imposed. But Mr. Sheean was yet un- 
conquered. His brother, a lawyer at Anamosa, Iowa, wrote 
liim, urging him never to yield ; that he would rather follow 
him to his grave than have him submit. 



458 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

The following reply, wbicli found its way out of tlie Fort 
in the pocket of a released prisoner, shows there was no need 
of the advice : 

" Fort Lafayette, November 10, 1862. 

"Dear Brother: Your highly appreciated letter of the 4th 
inst, is received. It was thrice welcome, because of the noble 
and resolute spirit breathed in every line. Had there been one 
drop of cringing blood in my veins, your letter would have 
driven it out; but I had long previously determined upon the 
course approved in it. Let come what will — even eternal im- 
prisonment — no man shall have it to say that I voluntarily dis- 
graced myself or my friends to purchase my liberty. No con- 
ditions have ever been offered me to obtain a release. It was 
known in Washington, as early as the middle of September last, 
that none would be accepted. My rights are all I ask, and know- 
ing what the}'^ ai'e, I will never yield them. While I hold my- 
self responsible to the laws of my country and to public opinion 
for every act of my life, I ask only that naked justice be dealt 
out to me by those who are, or ought to be, its executors. These 
being my views, my stay here will be prolonged indefinitely. 
So be it. I suppose Fort Lafayette will last as long as my reso- 
lution ; but while I feel as I have since its doors closed upon me, 
it shall witness my release from this world, rather than from its 
o^n walls, upon conditions unauthoritatively and arbitrarily im- 
posed. Your brother, 

David Sheean." 

As Mr. Sheean predicted, his imprisonment was prolonged, 
and would have been indeiinitely, but for the causes ojierating 
upon "VVashburne stated in the narrative of the arrest of Mr. 
Johnson. 

Determined, however, to test bis resolution, the Secretary of 
War, through L. C. Turner, sent an order, on the 13th day 
of December, 1862, to release him upon his parole. 

The Commandant very earnestly urged him to accept it, and 
thinking he might yield, would not take his answer until the 
end of an hour ; then he wished to know what reply he 
should telegraph back. " Telegraph," said Mr. Sheean, " that 



DAVID SHEEAN. 459 

I will accept no conditions if I stay here a lifetime, and 
send this letter, giving my reasons for it ; " handing to the 
Commandant the following letter : 

" Fort Lafayette, December 13, 1862. 
" Major L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate, Washington City : 

" Sir : Your order for my release upon condition that I would 
give my parole that I would conduct myself as a loyal citizen, 
and would not aid the rebellion, has been presented to me. 

" You well know, both from your interview with me here on 
the 9th of September last, and from my letter's which have been 
intercepted and sent to Washington since that time, that I would 
accept no conditions to get out of Fort Lafayette that could by 
im'plication place me in the wrong. You learn, too, from those let- 
ters, that I value my honor more than my life. Why, then, add 
insult to already accumulated injuries, by requiring me to make 
an admission of consummated and intended crime as the price 
of my liberty. It is intended that, after an attempt to destroy 
everything I hold dear, I must be degraded, in order that unau- 
thorized and unwarrantable proceedings against me may be pal- 
liated — that enemies who have wickedly aided an exercise of 
arbitrary power to wrong me, may have an opportunity to jus- 
tify their infamy by my own admissions? My liberty has been 
taken from me — m}'' life can with equal right be taken ; but my 
honor is my own, and I shall keep it even at the expense of both. 
I have heretofore lived true to the best interests of the Union 
and Constitution, and expect to die as I have lived. If the Gov- 
ernment have any charges against me alleging' the contrary, it 
is due to itself and to me to put me on trial. Let me suffer the 
penalty, or permit me to vindicate myself by an acquittal. It is 
due to itself to punish the guilty and acquit the innocent — to 
protect and advocate the citizen — not to violate his rights, and 
then degrade him. 

" Were I in the wrong — had I violated as much of the Con- 
stitution as has been done in my arrest by a telegraph ; spiriting 
me away over a thousand miles from my own State, and incar- 
cerating me for fifteen weeks, without condemnation or trial, or 
a knowledge why I was thus treated — I would not hesitate to 
purchase my liberty at so cheap a sacrifice as the loss of what- 
ever honor was left in me. As I know I am in the right, and 



460 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

have never violated any law, I shall never cringingly ask any 
favors, much less admit, by implication or otherwise, any guilt; 
but insist that my rights as an American citizen shall be dealt 
out to me. The Government should not demand more ; my sense 
of honor will not allow me to accept less. If my rights will not 
he granted, then I am at the further disposal of the powers that 
be, to execute upon me what they see fit, and have the power 
to do. Yours respectfully, 

(Signed) David Sheean." 

The following editorial comments are a just tribute to the 
spirit shown in the foregoing letter : 

Prom the Galena "Daily Democrat" of December 24. 

"NOBLE SENTIMENTS. 

"In our last issue we placed before the readers of the 'Demo- 
crat ' a letter, written by David Sheean, Esq., just after his re- 
lease from Fort Lafayette, and addressed to a personal friend of 
his in this city. We to-day print a letter written by him on the 
13th instant, and addressed to the Judge Advocate, in reply to 
an official intimation that he would be discharged on his parole, 
by taking an oath similar to the one which has been adminis- 
tered to others in like circumstances. 

"As will be seen, he indignantly spurned the proposal, fair 
enough on its face, but evidently intended to entrap an innocent 
man into that which might be construed to his disadvantage. 
But Mr. Sheean,' conscious of his innocence, and determined to 
come out of the furnace into which he had been cast without the 
smell of fire upon his garments, rebuked the insolence of office, 
and stood firmly and defiantly on his integrity, and boldly vin- 
dicates his patriotism and his manhood. From our heart of 
hearts we thank him for his manly display of moral courage, 
and we put it on record, as an example worthy of being imitated 
by the young men of our State and nation. In a few hours he 
will be with us, ' honorabl}" discharged,' and spontaneously hon- 
ored by his friends and fellow-citizens. Let it never be forgotten 
that he refused to bow the knee to Baal, or worship at the 
blood}^ shrine of Moloch. If guilty of any crime, let him be 
fairly tried and justly i^unished, but until confronted by his 



DAVID SHEEAN. 461 

accusers, let him be held as innocent as Caesar's wife — 'not only- 
free from guilt, but above suspicion.' O liberty! what crimes 
are perpetrated in thy name ! " 

• On the following day after this letter was written, Mr. 
Sheean was unconditionally discharged. lie was set at lib- 
erty in New York, to make his way home as best he could. 
No trial or examination was ever offered him. No charge 
was ever made against him. He was never informed who 
conspired against his liberty or by wdiat means his arrest 
was brought about ; all this he was left to surmise. With- 
out even an apology for his four months' incarceration, 
he was turned out of the Bastile, injured in healtii and 
ruined in business,, with a feeling of genuine hatred for the 
cause that demanded the sacrifice, and sharpened to reckless- 
ness by the wrongs he had endured. 

The arrest of Mr. Sheean operated the reverse of what 
was intended. Instead of intimidating, it stimulated his 
political and personal friends. He who dared to justify was 
quickly silenced. They declared themselves ready to follow 
him — his cause was theirs, and they openly became his cham- 
pions. 

The City Council of Galena unanimously passed resolutions 
condemning the act, and requesting of the Government a 
speedy examination of his case and that of Mr. Johnson. 
One thousand citizens of Galena, including a company of 
volunteers, signed a petition of the same purport. A request 
for an examination of the cases was extorted from the Gov- 
ernor of Illinois. General Rawlings sent to the Secretary 
of War a similar request as to Mr. Sheean, indorsed by Gen- 
eral Grant, but all to no purpose. 

The sullen despot at Washington heeded not prayers, peti- 
tions, or appeals for justice. That piece of loyal corruption 
— Washburne — was at " Court," and his ends were not yet 
accomplished. His will had imprisoned, and his will alone 
could release. It is a fact worthy of note, that out of twenty- 
five letters written by Mr. Sheean, while imprisoned, con- 



462 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

taming denunciatious against "Wasliburne, none ever reached 
the persons to whom they were written ; and it is supposed 
that Washburne to-day is the possessor of them. 

After Mr. Sheean's return to Galena, the Democrats, being 
determined to rebuke his enemies and reward him, induced 
him against his desire to be their candidate for Mayor of the 
city, and elected him by a vote of two to one for his Repub- 
lican opponent, it being the largest vote ever given for a 
municipal officer in Galena. 



GEORGE W. WILSOK 

p EORGE W. WILSON", of Upper Marlboro', Maryland, 
^ was arrested for the publication of an article in the 
Marlboro' Gazette, of which paper he was the Editor. The 
article in question was a criticism upon the nnjustness of the 
apportionment of the population of his State, which included 
white and black, freemen and slaves, in the basis for a draft. 

The apportionment made three-fifths of the slaves and free 
colored population a part of the militia of the State, when the 
Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and the acts of the Legis- 
lature distinctly declared the militia of the State shall con- 
sist only of that portion of her free white citizens who are 
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. 

On the morning of the 15th of October, 1862, his house 
was searched in his absence by a Government Detective, who 
said that he was searching for Government stores, but failed 
to find any. He was supported in his nefarious work by a 
squad of soldiers, under the command of a Captain Bullock. 

Upon Mr. Wilson's return to Marlboro', at noon, he re- 
ported himself to the Captain, who at once put him under 
arrest. After a private and informal examination of his 
case before the Provost Marshal of the County, the Detec- 
tive, and the Captain, during which time these functionaries 
had quite a sharp discussion as to who had the greatest 
power in the case, a parole of two hours was granted the 
prisoner, when he was to report, and hear what disposition 
had been made of him. 

At the expiration of the allotted time, he found a horse 
in readiness, and was told that he was to be taken to Wash- 
ington. Thither he was conducted, and arrived safely at the 
Old Capitol, at 9 o'clock p.m., where he was lodged, with ten 

463 



464 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

or twelve other prisoners, in room Xo. 16. At tlie examina- 
tion in Marlboro', the Marshal and Detective acquitted him 
fully of the charge alleged, but the Captain arraigned him 
upon the editori^als published in that morning's " Gazette." 
He read and re-read them, torturing the language into an 
" interference with the draft," and charging him (Wilson) 
with sarcasm, in calling his soldiers " the sons of Abraham." 
He defended himself by asserting that it was a cognomen of 
their own choosing, and quoting in support a popular air of 
the day. His escape from the civil authorities, (the Marshal 
and Detective,) and his arrest by the military, brought to 
mind the situation of the Irishmen in 1798 : 

"Them were hard times for an honest gossoon; 
If he missed of the judges, he met a dragoon : 
And whether the judges or soldiers gave sentence, 
The devil a short time they gave for repentance." 

During the few days Mr. "Wilson was an occupant of the 
Old Capitol, and an inmate of room No. 16 of the famous — 
infamous, rather — Bastile, he made his room-mates forget, 
most of the time, that they were victims of despotism. 
His hon-mots and witticisms seemed inexhaustible, and the 
vivaciousness of his temper tended to dispel the ennui which 
had settled upon them. 

!N"or did his interest in the well-being of his fellow-prison- 
ers cease with separation from them. No sooner did he 
reach home, some twenty miles from AVashington, than he 
despatched a large box of provisions, which he knew, by his 
six days' experience of the treatment of prisoners of state by 
the Administration, they much needed. Mr. Wilson's genial 
nature and liberal and gentlemanly conduct will ever be 
held in grateful remembrance by his fellow- victims of despot- 
ism of room No. 16, Old Capitol Prison. 

After remaining in the modern Bastile for six daj^s, his 
case was taken up, and he was discharged, mainly through 
the exertions of the Hon. Charles Calvert, representative in 
Congress from his district. 



J. BLAKE WALTERS, ESQ. 

T ELAKE "WALTERS, Esq., is a native of C ie<trfield 
^ • County, Pennsylvania, was born in that county in 1840, 
and lias always resided there, w^ith the exception of about a 
year spent in Baltimore, where he was employed in the office 
of the Division Superintendent, Xorthern Central Railroad, 
and at which place his arrest was made. His father was a 
member of the Pennsylvania Legislature during the sessions 
of 1847-8-9, and, in 1856, was elected Prothonotary of the 
county. He died in 1859. His son, Blake, was a clerk for 
him in the office of Prothonotary ; subsequently he was en- 
gaged in the lumber and mercantile business for two years, 
and for three years has been the law partner of the Hon. W. 
A. Wallace, in his native town. 

His arrest took place on Friday, the 6th of January, 1865, 
at 1 o'clock P.M., in his office in Baltimore, by a Government 
Detective, who took him thence to Colonel Wooley's office, 
at the corner of Camden and Eutaw Streets, where he was 
given in charge of the guard, and locked up in the old negro 
jail, or " Slave Pen," with some forty other prisoners, mostly 
deserters and bounty -jumpers. The room was in a filthy 
condition, being alive w^ith vermin, and without furniture of 
any description. At 7 o'clock p.m., he was ordered to pre- 
pare to go to Harrisburg, Pennsjlvania, He asked permis- 
sion of the Detective who had him in charge, to stop at his 
boarding-house, on the way to the depot, to enaljle liim to 
obtain some clothing. This was refused, the Detective saying 
that he was not permitted to take a prisoner into any house. 
On arriving at the depot, he requested one of the clerks to go 
for his shawl, which he did, but did not get any otlier cloth- 
ing. He was then taken on the train t(> Harrisburg, where 

^^ 465 



466 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

he arrived at 4 o'clock p.m., on tlie 7tli, having been detained 
by an accident on the road. 

Here he was turned over to Captain Thume, Provost Mar- 
shal, who sent him under guard to the "Exchange Guard 
House," on A\^alnut Street, opposite the County Jail, where 
he was ushered into a room on the second floor, twenty by 
forty feet, with fifty-three prisoners, among whom were a 
immber of persons from his own and Jetferson County. The 
room contained neither beds nor other accommodations, and 
the prisoners were compelled to lie upon the filthy floor. From 
6 P.M. until 6 A.M., no prisoner was permitted to leave the 
room. A half-barrel vessel was given them to be used for the 
purposes of nature; and before morning the vessel would be 
overflowed, and the contents running over half the floor, 
wetting many of the prisoners. Imagination could scarcely 
conceive a more horrible place. 

A hot stove in the room, made necessary by the intense 
cold; caused a most abominable stench, sickening many of 
the prisoners, who were compelled to use the tub already over- 
flowed. This was the case when the room contained fifty- 
three persons. What must it have been when from seventy- 
five to one hundred occupied it, which was not uncommon? 

The prisoners were marched in a body to the Soldiers' Rest, 
opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad depot, three times a day, 
for their rations of bread, meat, and 'cofl:ee. For dinner, 
they were given vegetable soup in the place of meat. They 
had as much of these articles as they wished. The bread 
and cofi'ee were reasonably good, but the meat was not. Mr. 
Walters was removed from this "Black Hole" on the 17th 
of Jaimary, when, in company with ten others, he was taken 
to Fort Mifflin. 

Here he was immured in a bombproof, with forty-one' 
other prisoners, from his own and adjoining counties, com- 
prising drafted men, deserters, and bounty-jumpers, but the 
greater portion, by far, were like himself, prisoners of state, 
who did not know of what their oft'ence consisted. The 
bombproof is an arch of brick and stone, laid in cement, and 



J. BLAKE WALTERS. 467 

intended to be proof against shot and shell. The room i3 
about twenty by sixty feet, and twelve feet high in the centre 
of the arch. The walls are from five to six feet in thickness, 
on the top of which is thrown from five to ten feet of earth. 
The floor is of cement, and has the appearance of hard earth. 
There was a grate in one end of the room, in which they kept 
a fire of anthracite coal constantly burning, the chictmey of 
which smoked so badly that the eyes of the prisoners were 
continually sore. In the opposite end there were nine crev- 
ices, three by fifteen inches, through which all the light and 
air passed that were admitted into the room. There were 
also a number of similar crevices along one side, but these 
they were obliged to keep closed on account of the coldness 
of the weather. It was so dark that in no part of the room 
could any one see to read or write a word at midday, with- 
out a candle ; and had the weather permitted them to have 
kept all the crevices open, there would not have been enough 
light admitted to allow of either reading or writing. 

There were no bunks or accommodations for sleeping, 
other than a few loose boards thrown along either side, upon 
which they slept. Each prisoner was furnished by the Gov- 
ernment with one blanket. These were their only beds — if 
beds thej^ could be called — until the 10th of February, 
(seven days before they were re-transferred to Harrisburg,) 
when bunks were put in for them. Five days afterward, 
some hay was furnished them to put on their bunks, and a 
few wornout bedticks were given to the old and sick. 

Each prisoner was provided with a tin cup and spoon, for 
which he paid the sutler thirty cents. This cup was all 
they had in which to get their rations, served up to them 
in this manner: In the mornings, each drew an eighteen- 
ounce loaf of bread, a small piece of meat, and a tincup of 
coffee. This was all the bread and meat furnished for one 
day's rations. The bread was g(»od, but the meat was very 
indifferent. Once or twice a week they were given fresh 
beef, and the balance of the time they were furnished with a 
poor quality of bacon. The coftee was not the article fur- 



468 AMERICAN BASTILE, 

iiislied by the Government, but an inferior quality of patent 
coffee, purchased, probably, at one-fourth the cost of the 
genuine article, which they were obliged to use, while the 
proceeds of that which was intended for their consumption 
passed into the pockets of those connected with the Commis- 
sary Department. For dinner, they were given a tiucup of 
bean-soup, made by putting the beans in the water in which 
the meat used the previous day had been boiled, and cook- 
ing them a few hours. It was repulsive even to hungry men, 
and could scarcely be made more unpalatable or unwhole- 
some. At supper, they were again given a cup of the same 
kind of coffee as was served in the morning. They had the 
privilege of purchasing a few things from the sutler, at three 
times their value, but they were of but. little use, having no 
conveniences for cooking. 

Their daily ration of water for fifty-two persons, who theu 
occupied the room, cojisisted of as much as they could bring 
twice, in a half barrel, from the Delaware. This was all 
they had for drinking and washing purposes for twenty-four 
hours. 

Here, as at the "Exchange," at Ilarrisburg, they were 
furnished with a half barrel, for the same purposes, and with 
the same results. This they emptied into the Delaware, at 
the same wharf where they obtained their drinking water. 
Two-thirds of the prisoners being ill with diarrhoea, caused 
l)y the food and water, were compelled to use the tub for the 
calls of nature, and this being kept in the end near the crev- 
ices to avoid the fire, emitted a horrible smell, which was 
carried by the current of air through the middle of the room, 
and thence out at the chimney. The only vessel they had in 
which to wash and boil their clothing, was a two-gallon tin 
bake-pan, until a short time prior to their departure, when 
they were provided with two rusty camp-kettles. The air 
was very damp, and durijig the greater, part of the night it 
was so cold that they were unable to sleep. 

These rooins had never been intended by their builders 
for the confinement of prisoners, as the dampness must, in a 



J. BLAKE WALTERS. 469 

short time, impair, if not destroy the health of those having 
the strongest constitution — as the appearance of the prisoners 
confined with Mr. Walters fully testified. During his im- 
prisonment in the Fort, he was detained in close confinement, 
except when he volunteered to go out and work, which he 
did several times in order to get fresh air. 

The only kind of work the prisoners could get was cutting 
and wheeling ice to fill the ice-house, or shovelling gravel on 
a new- road, which was being built from the Fort to Bell's 
Station, on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore 
Eailroad. The work, although not of a very pleasant char- 
acter, was not half as bad to them as the sense of having a 
guard at their backs, with a musket and bayonet, watching 
them as though they were criminals. To Mr. Walters this 
was \evy humiliating. 

On the morning of the 17th of February, after a confine- 
ment in the Fort of thirty -one days, he, together with six 
others, left for Ilarrisburg. They were forced to walk to 
Philadelphia, a distance of six miles. The road was slushy 
and slippery, making it a difficult and painful undertaking to 
some of the party, as Mr. Hubler, one of them, was very old, 
and Dr. Krise, another, had j\ist been taken out of the hos- 
pital. They arrived at Ilarrisburg at 4 o'clock p. m. on 
the same day, and were lodged in the " Exchange." He 
found this place, if possible, more filthy than when, a month 
previously, he left it for the Fort. 

Mr. Walters now for the first time was enabled to find out 
the charges upon which he had been arrested. He had made 
inquiry at the Provost Marshal's ofiice in Baltimore, when 
first arrested, and was told that they did not know what the 
charges were. This he felt satisfied was false, as an article 
appeared in the " Baltimore Clipper," a few days afterward, 
stating that he was a "desperate character," and the "leader 
of the Clearfield Cojunty rioters." This information, ne was 
confident, came from the ofiice of Colonel Wooley. On being 
turned over to Captain Thume at Harrisburg, when first 
taken there, he asked for a copy of the charges against him, 



470 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

whicli the Captain promised to furnisli on the following 
Monday, but which was never received. He had frequently . 
demanded the nature of his offence, but failed to elicit it, and, 
after an incarceration of forty -three days, was informed of it 
by his friends, which was: "of being an officer of a secret 
organization to resist the draft." 

The affidavit on which his arrest was ordered was made by 
John L. Loder, of Bradford Township, who sicore that Mr. 
Walters had acted as chairman of a meeting at Knept's barn, 
held during the previous September or October, for the pur- 
pose of resisting the draft, and that he had sworn the men 
present to do so. To prove this a falsehood, we need only 
mention that he left the county on the 12th of September, 
returned on the 26th, remained during the court term, and 
on the 2d of October left for Willi amsport, and did not again 
return to the county until after his release. 

The meeting of which Loder gave an exposition was held 
in July, its object being the thorough organization of the 
Democratic party of the township, preparatory to the special 
election on the 4th of August, 1864, this duty having been 
assigned to Mr. Walters by the Chairman of the State Cen- 
tral Committee for that purpose. Loder afterward came to 
Mr. Walters, at the "guard-house" in Harrisburg, at the 
time his trial was about to commence, and in the presence 
of Daniel Curly, informed him that he had told the Judge 
Advocate to destroy the affidavit, as he had been " entirely 
mistaken," both as to the time of the meeting and its object, 
and that he would not appear against Mr. Walters ; and 
further, that he would swear that resistance to the draft or 
Government had never been mentioned in said meeting. 

This statement was made voluntarily, as he had not spoken 
to Loder since his arrest. Further conversation with him 
convinced Mr. Walters that he (Loder) had been made to 
serve the wishes of S. B. Benson, who no doubt conducted 
the prosecution to revenge himself for an altercation, which 
had taken place a few months before at Philipsburg. 

On the evening of the 22d of February, Mr. Walters was 



J. BLAKE WALTERS. 471 

taken to the court-house, and handed a copy of the charges 
and specifications against him hy Captain Johnson, Judge* 
Advocate. He was then sent hack to the " guard-house," 
after being informed that his trial should commence in the 
morning. The following morning, H. Bucher Swoope, Esq., 
called on him, with some other friends, and expressed a will- 
ingness to assist in obtaining his release. Mr. "Walters told 
liim that he was weary of his imprisonment, but would make 
no concessions that could in any way sacrifice his manhood 
or honor, to secure his liberty. 

On the 27tli of February, the prisoners were all removed to 
the guard-house connected with the cotton-factory barracks, 
"vhich, though unfit for the confinement of human beings, 
was much better in every respect than the " Exchange," 
which had become so filthy that persons visiting their friends 
confined there could not, after leaving, the pure air of the 
city, endure it more than a few minutes, without being sick- 
ened by the intolerable stench which pervaded the room. 

On the 1st of March, Mr. "Walters and five others from his 
county were marched to the Provost Marshal's office, where 
they were released on taking the oath of allegiance, and also 
an oath to report in person when requested by the officer 
commanding the Department. The oath of allegiance was 
the same as usually administered. 

Thus ended fifty-four days' of imprisonment in one of the 
Militar}^ Bastiles, for a purely imaginary oftence, to satisfy 
the malice of a satellite of tyranny. 

His political friends used every effort to get him released 
or tried, but their efforts were looked upon with suspicion, 
and their requests treated with contempt by those having 
immediate charge of the Department at Harrisburg. 



IMAJOR JACOB WILLHELAL 

THE ciivuni8tanees attending the arrest of ATajor AVill- 
helm were of a most painful cliaraeter, and it was one 
of the most glaring usurpations of power we have heen 
i'alled upon to narrate. It shows one of a thousand in- 
stances, where an unotfending man has been torn fi'oni his 
home and family at midnight hours, dragged by a ruthless 
soldiery through the intense cold of a December night, 
thrust into a prison-pen twelve miles distant, and afterward 
detained in prisons so damp as to be fit only for toads. 

Jacob AVillhchii was born in JSTorthumberland County, 
Pennsylvania, in 1805, and is, consequently, 64 years of age. 
He has always been an honest, hard-working man, having 
" eaten his bread by the sweat of his brow." He has been 
a firm and conscientious defender of the principles of Jelt'er- 
son and Aladison, opposing as firmly in 1861 the h>-dra- 
headed doctrine of secession, as he had through a long life 
the pernicious doctrines of centralization, miscegenation, and 
abolitionism, with their concomitant train of evils. 

He has at difierent periods of his life held the offices of 
Captain and Major of the State Militia, and at present is 
Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Clear- 
field County. 

He i;> an unrio-ht, hiorhminded man, and commands the 
respect and confidence of all who know him. Opposed to 
coercion and the war, he nevertheless, as a law-abiding citizen, 
obeyed tlie laws and acts of Congress, and gave his time, 
infiuence, and money toward the raising of volunteers and 
substitutes to fill the quota of his township, and relieve it 
of the heartless tyranny of a conscription ; having spent in 
all about $2,200 for commutation money, in raising volun- 

472 



MAJOR JACOB WILLHELM. 473 

teers, and for his board and physician's bill during his arrest 
and imprisonment. 

In 1862, his oldest son and son-in-law enlisted in the army 
and served for three years. In the same year, his township 
raised money by subscription to avert the draft. In the 
year 1864, three drafts were made. The endeavors to raise 
funds to fill the quota of men required, without a draft, in 
his township, having proved futile, a draft took place, and 
his second son was one of the number drawn, for whose ex- 
emption the Major paid $365. 

The same son was at the time clerk for an ironmaster, 
named Lyon, in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Avho dis- 
charged him for manfully refusing to vote for Mr. Lincoln, 
contrary to his convictions, saying that he did not think it 
safe to employ clerks who did not look to their employers' 
interest. His third son was drafted in the same year, and 
paid $940 for a substitute. Four of his family were then 
either drafted or in the army. One son only remained, and 
he was under the required age. 

Major Willhelm was arrested at midnight on the 24th of 
December, 1864, by a detachment of soldiers from the 16th 
Eegiment A'^eteran Reserve Corps, then stationed at Philips- 
burg, Pennsylvania. His son, having taken a drafted man 
to the headquarters to report, was compelled to convey the 
detachment of soldiers who made the arrest of his father, 
and threatened with imprisonment if he should refuse. 
"When the squad came to his house, they had two of his 
neighbors under arrest. The posse consisted of six men, 
who hastily thrust him into his sled and conveyed him to 
headquarters, where he arrived about daylight. 

Here he was confined in what had formerh^ been an old 
mill, but which was now converted into a barrack for tlie 
troops. It being Sunday, his friends endeavored to get him 
released on parole, or on bail, until the following day, when 
he was to be taken East. The officers at first refnsed, but at 
length moderated their stringent measures so far, as to grant 
him the freedom of the town on bail, with the condition that 



474 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

he was to report at 10 o'clock a.m., on the following morning. 
At the expiration of the allotted time, he reported himself 
at the headquarters, and w^as marched, under guard of two 
men, to the barracks, there to await the departure of the 
train for Harrishurg. 

"While standing before the grate in the " Spread Eagle " 
Hotel, he was closely questioned as to several political gather- 
ings that had been held in his township, and, at one of which, 
he had acted as president. The meetings in question were 
held at the instigation of the Chairman of the Democratic 
State Central Committee, for the organization of the party 
in the township, prior to the election of October of the same 
year ; and which the heated imagination of the " patriots " 
had converted into resistance to the draft and subversion of 
the Government. 

He was taken thence direct to Harrishurg. Arriving at 
Tyrone, he wrote to Mr. Lamberton, attorney at law, in Har- 
rishurg, soliciting his professional services. Mr. Lamberton 
not being at home, Mr. D. Fleming called upon him, and 
subsequently assisted the former gentleman in conducting his 
case. 

While confined at the " Exchange Guard-house," admis- 
sion was persistently refused to his friends who called upon 
him. Hon. Wm. A. Wallace, Senator from his county, was 
at first refused admission, but was subsequently admitted 
through the influence of Mr. Fleming. He and his fellow- 
prisoners were ofl:ered their liberty by prominent Republi- 
cans, if they would debase their manhood and become mem- 
bers of their party. 

This disgraceful proposition, worthy only of the men who 
ofifered it, was manfully and indignantly refused. On the 
4th of January, 1865, he, together with several others, was 
transferred from the loathsome " guard-house " to Fort Mif- 
flin, near Philadelphia. 

Arriving in that city, they were placed in the fourth story 
of tjje barrack at Fifth and Buttonwood Streets, and left 
during the night without food or fire, in a room in which 



MAJOR JACOB WILLHELM. 475 

nearly all the glass was broken from the windows, and through 
which blew the chill blasts of winter. - 

In the morning, Major Willhelm was furnished with some 
bread and meat, and taken to the depot, where he stood until 
between 3 and 4 o'clock p.m., when he was started for Fort 
Mifflin. 

Arriving there about dark, he was immediately immured 
in a bombproof about sixty feet in length by twenty feet in 
width, and about twelve feet in height from the floor to the 
apex. This room had but nine small crevices at one end, for 
the admission of light and air, those upon the side being 
kept closed on account of the intense cold. In this room 
were huddled about forty persons, a majority of whom were 
coniined for political oflences. These persons, groping around 
in the dark — for at no time was there light enough to see to 
read — and all inhaling the vitiated air of the room, presented 
a picture which has scarcely a parallel in the prison annals 
of the world. 

The room had but one small grate, and this emitted an 
insufficiency of warmth, causing much suffering among the 
prisoners, who stood by it in turns, some roasting, while 
others stood back shivering with cold. This alternation of 
positions caused the retiring party to sutler more severely 
from the fact that they could see the fire, but not feel its 
warmth, and dared not in honor advance until the proper 
time. They had neither chair, stool, bench, nor bedstead, 
and were compelled to lie and sit upon a few boards thrown 
loosely down on the floor, while the dripping from the 
walls and roof either ran on the cemented floor or formed 
icicles and glades of ice on the walls. Those who had no 
blankets were furnished with old ones by the Government, 
some of which were full of vermin. 

Major Willhelm had not been long imprisoned, when he 
discovered that the sudden change from an active out-of- 
door life to confinement in a loathsome cell was impairing 
his health ; which continued to grow worse daily, and finally 
reduced him to the portals of the tomb. 



476 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

The fare was meagre, tlie only good article furnished them 
being bread, but this was insuliicient in quantity. The meat 
was such as was fed to prisoners at the other Forts, much 
of it jmtrid ; and the coffee was a vile compound wholly 
unfit to drink. This regimen was sometimes varied by giving 
them bean or pea soup, a shadow, void of substance. There 
was a sutler-shop in the Fort, where those who had money 
might make occasional purchases, paying extortionate prices 
for everything. They were compelled to go under " a 
guard," who always expected "his whiskey" for his trouble. 
I^^othing was done gratuitously. Cold boiled hams and bacon 
were the principal meats purchased : the former was gene- 
rally of good quality, but the latter was as rusty as though it 
were a remaining portion of the provisions of the Argonautic 
Expedition. 

Boxes of provisions sent to the prisoners were opened, and 
their contents examined ; ostensibly to prevent the smug- 
gling of liquor to the prisoners, but in fact to divide their 
contents with the officers, who took a large share. 

As time elapsed, Major Wilhelm found his health rapidly 
declining. He became very weak, sometimes scarcely able to 
walk. Thus far, all the exertions of his counsel and the un- 
tiring efforts of his friends to procure his release had been 
abortive. 

On the 17th of February, he with several others, was taken 
to Harrisburg for trial, after an incarceration in Fort jSIifflin, 
of forty-four days. Through the intercession of Hon. Wm. 
A. Wallace, he was granted the limits of the city, which 
somewhat ameliorated his condition. His parole was to ex- 
tend to the time that his trial commenced, about a week 
afterward. He was then turned over by Captain Thume to 
Judge-Advocate Johnson, who renewed it for him, but re- 
quired him to report at 9 o'clock a.m., daily. 

Shortly after the extension of his parole, he was confined 
to his bed in the " Bolton House," for five weeks, with 
scarcely a hope of recovery. But, through the attentive care 
of his wife and son, together with the best medical attend- 



MAJOR JACOB WILLHELM. 477 

ance, he was enabled, by tbis time, to bear tbe fatigues inci- 
dent to a journey borne, permission to take bim tbitber 
having been granted. 

His trial lasted two weeks, and for two weeks more be vfas 
held in uncertainty as to tbe findings, wbicb proved to be 
" guilty," with a sentence of two years' confinement in a Gov- 
ernment Fort, and a fine of $500. Guilty of what ? Guilty 
of having exercised tbe right of an American citizen, grant- 
ed to him by the Constitution of his country ! Guilty of 
having — by the voices of his fellow-citizens — presided over 
a political meeting of Democrats, and of having concocted 
plans for defeating his political opponents ! A heinous crime, 
certainly ! 

Before bis departure from Ilarrisburg, be was raised up in 
bed, and required to sign a parole, agreeing to report himself, 
when called upon to do so. Being unable to write his name, 
and totally unconscious of the surrounding proceedings, bis 
hand was taken by H. Bucher Swoope, of his county, and his 
name afiixed to the bond. 

By slow stages he was removed to his home, receiving the 
most delicate attentions from his friends on the route. 

From Philipsburg, he was conveyed^ on a bed, placed in a 
wagon, being so debilitated as to be unable to sit up for any 
length of time. 

lie arrived at home in May, and in about a month was 
called upon to report ; but through the influence of General 
Steadman and some other influential friends, he received a 
pardon from President Johnson before the expiration of the 
time allotted him to appear. He has somewhat recovered 
his strength, but not his former health. Ilis constitution 
was irretrievably broken by bis confinement and consequent 
sickness. 



JACOB HUBLER AND SON. 

MR. JACOB HUBLER, of Grahampton, Clearfield County, 
Fennsylvania, was another of the victims sacrificed to 
the bloody Moloch of Abolitionism. He was sixty-five year« 
of age, and suffering from the infirmities incidental to that 
period of life, at the time of his arrest. About 10 o'clock 
P.M., in the latter part of December, 1864, he was arrested, 
and brutally treated by his captors. 

The arrest was made by a squad of soldiers headed by one 
Joseph Miller, a citizen, wearing an United States uniform. 
On entering the house of Mr. Hul)ler, they presented their re- 
volvers and covered his person with them, demanding to know, 
at the same time, if there were any men in the house. He re- 
plied in the negative. He was then told to pack up his cloth- 
ing, as he was a prisoner, and must accompany them. He 
asked Aliller what crime he had committed against either the 
civil or nulitary authority of the United States, that he was 
thus to be dragged from his fireside, avowing himself to be a 
law-abiding citizen. The officer ordered him to stop his prat- 
tle and get ready to leave. In a few minutes after, he, together 
with several others who had been kidnapped, was started for 
Philipsburg, the regimental headquarters, where he arrived 
after suffering much from the inclemency of the weather. 
The next day he was examined by the Marshal, who could 
find nothing against him to warrant his arrest or detention, 
but who nevertheless confined him for several days in an old 
l)arrack, where he was fed on hardtack and coff'ee. After 
four days of imprisonment he was transferred, under guard, 
to Harrisburg, and immured in the " Exchange," where he 
anxiously awaited his promised trial. 

Before leaving Philipsburg, he was told by the command- 

478 



JACOB HUBLEE AND SON. 479 

ing officer that he would be held responsible for his son, 
who had been drafted and had not reported. He protested 
against the injustice of such action, averring that his son was 
of age, and out of his parental jurisdiction. But this did 
not palliate his case. A pretext for his arrest was needed, 
and that furnished it. 

After an incarceration of a week in the '' Exchange," he 
and forty-two others were placed on the train for Philadel- 
phia, where they arrived benumbed with cold. They were 
then marched to tJie barrack, at Fifth and Buttonwood 
Streets, placed in the upper portion of the building, in a 
room from the window of which nearly all the glass had 
been broken. Here, fatigued and hungry, with nothing to 
eat, they were left for the night. 

Mr. Hubler's boots were frozen on his feet, and he nearly 
perished with the cold, which was so intense, that the 
younger men were compelled to walk the room to keep up 
the circulation of the blood. 

The following morning, he, w^ith the others, was furnished 
with a ration of bread and meat, marched to the depot at 
Broad and Prime Streets, and kept standing for more than 
half a day. About four o'clock p.m., they were placed on the 
cars for Fort Mifflin", where thej' arrived about dusk, and 
were taken to Colonel Eastman's office, and after standing 
for an hour, were placed in a bombproof with more than 
forty others. His treatment, here, was the same as that of 
the other prisoners, which is described in the narrative of Mr. 
Walters, who was from that time forth his fellow-prisoner. 
While a prisoner in the Fort, his son, Levi Hubler, who 
had been drafted, as he was informed, but had never been 
legally notified of it, after keeping out of the way for fear 
of arrest by the troops who were scouring the countrj^' re- 
ported in the latter j^art of December, thinking that he 
would be treated as a drafted man, as other non-reporting 
men had been. Immediately on presenting himself at the 
regimental headquarters, he was arrested, and after a few 
days' confinement, sent to Harrisburg, and thence to Fort 



480 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Mifflin, undergoing the same treatment that his father waS 
there receiving. 

February 17th, 1865, father and son, together with a 
number of others, were marched to Philadelphia, taken to 
General Cadwalader's headquarters, and after standing an 
hour or more, were taken to the depot, where they were 
placed in the cars for Ilarrisburg. 

On the march from the Fort to Philadelphia, Mr. Ilubler, 
Sen., sutiered much from fatigue and weakness. The road 
was full of slush an-d snow, and the prisoners were con- 
stantly slipping, which made the march more tedious and 
tiresome. Mr. Hubler nearly gave out from exhaustion, and 
was supported and assisted in turn by tlie stronger and more 
robust of the party. Arriving at Ilarrisburg, they were 
again placed in the " Exchange," which becoming so filthy 
as to disgust even the officials, they were removed to the 
"Cotton Factory," which was somewhat cleaner, if not more 
commodious. 

Their trial, which had been promised them, was delayed 
from day to day. They were marched from the prison to the 
commission in the morning, full of the expectation of having 
a trial and hearing their fate, and after waiting all day in 
torturing anxiety, were marched back again, without a word 
of explanation. 

Mr. Hubler, Jr., was paroled on the 22d of February, 
1865, and has never since been called upon to report. 

Mr. Ilubler, Sen., failed so rapidly in healtli, that he was 
granted a parole on the 15th of March, 1865, and returned 
to his home, where he was coniined to his bed, in which he 
lingered until the 4th of July, and died on the anniversary 
day on which, eighty-nine years before, had been declared 
the birth of a nation of freemen. 

We conclude these narratives with a list of those who 
were arrested and confined from Clearfield County, Pennsyl- 
vania. The list is not complete, but is as full as the author 
could make it. 



JACOB 


HUBLER 


Name. 


Age when arrested. 


Boyer George, 


35 


Boyer Benjamin, 


22 


Hubler Jacob, 


65 


Hubler Levi, 


— 


HufFnel D.- S., 


22 


HufFnel Israel, 


37 


Kuhnley Jolin, 


8G 


Kulmley George, 


40 


Keller J. S., 


22 


Keller Peter, 


37 


Keller Jacob, 


85 


Kerb George, 


22 


]\Iiller Andrew, 


28 


Ruclier George, 


55 


Eeider John, 


52 


Shucker Henry, 


23 


Shucker George, 


21 


Shucker Cornelius, 


18 


Shindell Lewis, 


33 


Weaver George J., 


82 


Willhelm Jacob, 


59 


AValters J. Blake, 


25 


Yoas Henry, 


44 



AND SON". 



481 



Residence. 
Luthersburg, Pa. 

Grahampton, (dead,) " 

Luthersburg, *' 



JeflFerson Line, 
Luthersburg, 



Grahampton, " 

Clearfield. " 

Luthersburg, " 

Three of these cases are extremely painful — those of Jacob 
Hubler, George Rucher, and Jacob Willhelm. The first of 
these, the senior of the party, suffered intensely from his con- 
finement, and died shortly after his return home. 

The second, George Rucher, is heart-rending, calling to 
mind some of the scenes of the French Revolution, and par- 
ticularly the parting scenes of the Concierge rie. At the 
time of his arrest, his wife (an old woman) was told by her 
neighbors that her husband would be hung. This friglitened 
her so that she died in a few hours afterward, "When this 
sorrowful news reached her aged consort in the Gnard-house 
at ITarrisburg, he was so overc(7iiit with emotion that he died 
almost as suddenly. 

The other, Jacob Willhelm, whose case is given in this 
work, was reduced to the verge of the grave: 

....'• and now 

Despoiled, he lives like win<l-.«\vept, lenflc8s< boughs, 

A noble phantom — shade of what had been." 
31 



THOMAS W. BERRY, E8Q. 

ABOUT seven o'clock on the inorning of the 2')tli of March, 
1862, a squad of Company E, 4th ^ew York Artillery, 
surrounded the house of Mr. Zacariah Berry, hi Prince George 
County, Maryland, and arrested his hrothcr, Thomas W. 
Berry, Esq., a resident of AV^ashingtou City, then on a visit. 
Captain Tudor, after disposing of his men so as to prevent 
escape, hastily entered the house and exchiimed : " Ah, Mr. 
Thomas, I 've got you, have 1 1 Are you Thomas W. Berry? " 
Receiving an affirmative answer, he continued, " Then I arrest 
you. Captain Thomas Berry, of the Reljel Army, for treason 
against the United States. Shall I treat you as a prisoner 
of state, or a prisoner of war ? " Mr. B. replied, " I am 
your prisoner, sir, and you can do as 3^ou please." 

Immediately on entering the room. Captain Tudor took 
from Mr. Berry a tine revolver, which he reluctantly re- 
turned to him, after liis release from the Old Capitol Prison. 
Mr. Berry requested permission to visit his chamber, under 
guard, that he might obtain a change of clothing before 
leaving. This request was peremptorily refused by the Cap- 
tain, who further declined to permit him to visit his sister- 
in-law, then lying very ill. 

The Captain would not allow him to take breakfast, but 
unceremoniously ordered him to " fall in line," at the same 
time refusing him the use of a horse or carriage, remarking 
that he had a conveyance a short distance from the house. 
In the yard among the soldiers stood a man named Wilkin- 
son, of low birth and no standing in the community in which 
he lived. This man had piloted the party to the house. 
Wilkinson kept a " whiskey shop" at Grimes's Cross Roads, 
in Prince George County, not far from Fort (treble, and had 

482 



THOMAS W. BERRY. 483 

been detected in selling liquor to the soldiers stationed at 
the Fort, in violation of orders. Colonel Douhleday threatened 
to confiscate his siock of liquor and put him under arrest. 
To avert the threatened danger, he determined to expiate his 
offence by an act of " loyalty," and offered to show the 
Colonel where he could arrest a " Rebel Cajjtain." Colonel 
D. acceded to this offer, and in addition promised him one 
hundred dollars for his services. Hence the arrest of Mr. 
Berry. 

After leaving his brother's residence, Mr. Berry was 
marched about ten miles through mud and water, before 
they cahie to the conveyance mentioned by the Captain. 
This was a miserable old vehicle, venerable in appearance, 
and in such a shattered condition from having been upset 
the night previous, that when they came to bad places in the 
road, (and these were not unfrequent,) the occupants were 
compelled to alight and walk. This was repeated so fre- 
quently tliat Mr. B. insisted upon walking rather than be 
continually getting in and out the dilapidated coach. They 
rode the last five miles of the road to Fort Greble, opposite 
Alexandria, in a regimental wagon without seats. The 
wagon contained Captain Tudor, fourteen men, a surgeon, 
and the prisoner. Mr. B. estimates that he walked twenty 
miles of the distance between his brother's house and the 
Fort. 

While on the line of march, Mr. B. was graciously in- 
formed by Captain Tudor that he would be hung as a spy, 
as it was well known to the Government that he was a 
Guerrilla Captain in the Rebel Army, and had murdered a 
numb'^r of Union citizens, that he had the week previously 
crossed the Potomac and stopped with his brother, that he 
and his brother had been to Bladensburg and taken the cars 
thence to Baltimore, where they had purchased and shipped 
South large supplies of medicines for the Confederate Govern-, 
ment. Mr. B. listened to this piece of information with 
mingled feelings of disgust and surprise, and immediately 
contradicted the statement in toto, assuring the valiant Cap- 



484 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

tain that he had no fears of being hung, but that if proof 
were needed to substantiate the charges he had made, he 
entertained no doubt but that a host of Government spies 
would be wilhng to swear to them, regardless of the perjury 
they would commit. After l)luutly denying that he had 
rendered either aid or comfort to the enemies of the United 
States Government, Mr. B. frankly told tlie Captain that 
he was a Southern man, that his sympathies lay with his 
section, and that the Government had done him and 
his family enough injury to cause them to despise it: they 
had taken possession of the old homestead, " Metropolis 
View," about a mile from Washington, and had permitted 
the soldiers to wantonly mutilate and destroy the dwelling, 
which was elegantly finished and furnished ; that the soldiers 
had thrust their bayonets into the plastering on the walls 
and ceiling, and had shot into the ornamental work. A 
party of them even went so far with their vandalism, as to 
break into the family vault, and desecrate the remains of the 
dead, tearing the silver-plated handles and screws from the 
coffin which contained the ashes of his father ; while the 
coffins of his infant brother and sister were broken open at 
the same time, and their bones left lying on the iloor of the 
vault; that when John Maguire,an honest Irishman, went to 
them, and with tears in his eyes, entreated them to desist 
and respect the dead, and not to desecrate the remains of the 
family, as they had been good to him, he was met by these 
unfeeling men with jeers and laughter, and the remark that 
they were all rebels, and that they had heard there was 
jewelry buried with the dead. 

Captain Tudor said he could not believe that such a'thing 
had occurred. Mr. Berry told him that a written statement 
of the facts, as he had related them, had been sent to Gen- 
eral McClellan, and that all they could learn of the perpetra- 
tors was that the depredations had been committed by some 
soldiers of a Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by a Colo- 
nel Williams, who gave as an excuse that he was unable to 
control his men. 



THOMAS W. BEREY. 485 

Mr. B. said further, that the Governmeut had driven the 
tenant from " Belle Vue," a farm belonging to his sister ; had 
torn doAvn the house and built Fort Greble on its site ; that 
they had also cut fifty acres of valuable timber from his farm, 
and used it in the construction of the forts on the Potomac 
Elver, and had refused to remunerate him for his loss, or pay 
for tlie place, declaring the family were all rebels. 

On the arrival of the party in camp, they were received 
with cheers and shouts. Captain Tudor was as warmly 
greeted Ijy his brother officers as though he had performed 
a valiant act in the capture of one man. Mr. B. was placed 
in the mess-room, and a guard put over him. Presently Cap- 
tain Tudor came in and oftered to the prisoner an apology 
for the rudeness he had manifested, in the morning, at his 
brother's house, giving as an excuse that he had heard that 
the people of Prince George County, and especially the 
Berrys, of whom there were quite a number, were violent 
secessionists, and that he had not expected to make the arrest 
without a fight, and for that reason had taken a surgeon with 
him. 

At 6 P.M. he was given a fair supper, and then placed in 
an ambulance and conveyed under guard to Fort Carroll, 
about a mile from Washington. At the Fort he was con- 
fronted with Colonel Doubleday, who commanded the defences 
east of the city. The Colonel addressed him as " Captain 
Berry, of the Rebel Army," but was soon made aware of his 
error by the prisoner's denial that he had ever held any posi- 
tion, civil or military, under the Confederate Government. 
The Colonel said that he had been informed to the contrary, 
and ordered him to be conveyed to Washington, where he 
was taken to the guard-house, and thrust into a room with 
about one hundred drunken soldiers, who had been gathered 
up by the provost guard during the day. Observing that he 
wore the dress of a citizen, the soldiers crowded around him, 
anxious to know the cause of his arrest, the most of them 
supposing that he had sold liquor to the soldiers surrepti- 
tiously ; but when informed that he had been chai-ged with 



486 AMERICAN" BASTILE. 

being a Rebel captain, they advised him to say nothing about 
it while there, as everything that was said was reported to 
the authorities. The night passed wearily on, and many 
recollections of it are too horrible to relate. The next morn- 
ing he was sent to the Old Capitol Prison — the abode of 
many martyrs of tyranny — where, through the kindness of 
Superintendent Wm. P. Wood, he was permitted to receive 
clothing, and a daily supj^ly of provisions from his mother 
and sister, who resided in the City of Washington. 

During his imprisonment in the Old Capitol, he was at dif- 
ferent times an occupant of rooms 10 and 15. 

On the 12th of April, 1862, he was discharged. 

" I never had been," says Mr. B., " connected in any way 
with the Confederate Government, nor had I ever been farther 
south than Alexandria, after the month of April, 1861. 
Therefore, all the charges against me were false." 

Mr. Berry has since removed to the city of Baltimore, 
where he now resides. He is a lawyer by profession, and is 
in possession of a large and growing practice. He is highly 
esteemed for his integrity and worth. 



REV. DAVID R. Mc ANALLY, D.D. 

REV. DAVID R. McANALLY, D.D., is a native of East 
Tennessee. He was born in Granger County, February 
17, 1810. His parents were pioneers to that State, and were 
highly respectable and deeply pious people. His father was 
a minister of the Methodist Church for over forty years, and 
died at an advanced age, in 1849. 

The sul)ject of this brief sketch had the advantage in early 
life of a fine private school, and early evinced an inclination 
for study and the pursuit of letters ; graduating in the degree 
of A. M., at Emory and Henry College, Virginia. He entered 
the ministry at the age of nineteen, and was ordained with 
full powers of the ministry in the year 1831. He filled ap- 
pointments in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and in 
other States, until 1848, when he received the appointment of 
President of the Female Institute at Ivnoxville, Tennessee, 
over which he presided for eight years ; during which time 
the fame of the Institute drew pupils from all parts of the 
United States. 

Dr. McAnally was invited by the Conferences of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, South, having control of the " St. Louis 
Christian Advocate" and the Book Depository, located in 
that city, to the position of editor and agent. He accepted, 
and entered upon these duties in the year 1851. The large 
circulation of the "Advocate," and the immense influence it 
exerted wherever circulated, attested the popularity of its 
editor. Nor were his labors confined to the editing of this 
paper and conducting the business of the publishing house ; 
but he preached as many sermons weekly to the unsupplied 
churches as those who had been assigned to regular minis- 
terial duty ; and this, too, in many instances, " without money 

487 



488 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

and Avithout price/' His labors were not restricted to the pnl- 
pitsof bis own denomination, but be supplied tbosc of other 
Christian Churches ; in one instance supplying a Presbyte- 
rian pulpit for several months, for which service he declined 
any compensation. Since 1857, he has preached regularly at 
a neat little chapel in the city of Carondelet, near which stands 
his residence. Xo minister was ever blessed with a more 
devoted congregation than his. During the whole period of 
our dreadful civil war, not a jar or discordant word was 
heard among them. His persecutions and imprisonment 
endeared him all the more to them. His Christian and 
ministerial character was never compromised by word or 
deed while sutFcring the indignity of arrest, the insulting 
language of petty t}- rants in the persons of Provost ^larshals, 
and during weeks of imprisonment. He came forth from the 
prison as pure, if not more pure, than he entered it. Is^one, who 
were privileged to hear it, will ever forget his first sermon to 
his congregation, the Sabbath after his release, from the text, 
"I have faith in God." Of all his best and happiest eftbrts 
before and since, none ever approached this in genuine elo- 
quence. The effect was electric and almost overpowering. 
He was there and then a living illustration of the mighty 
truths he, with so much feeling, uttered. 

On Sunday, the lOtli of jNIay, 1863, an officer came to 
arrest him. In the forenoon he had preached an interest- 
ing sermon, and after dinner went to his study to prepare a 
sermon for the evening. While thus engaged, the officer 
presented himself and placed the Doctor under arrest. A 
jiiercing cry from his daughter was heard, when others hast- 
ened to the library, where the arrest Avas made. He cabnly 
gathered his family together in the library, when he told the 
officer that he wished to have prayers before separating from 
them. The officer replied that he had no objection. The 
Doctor opened the Bible at the twenty-third Psalm, and read 
with much feeling and pathos, " The Lord is my shepherd, I 
shall not want," etc. The reading of the Psalm finished, he 
offered a touching and appropriate prayer, and then atfec- 



E E V. DAVID R. M c A N A L L Y, D. D. 489 

tionately addressed his orphan son and daughter. The 
officer, callous though he may have been, was not an un- 
moved spectator of the affecting scene. To his honor be it 
recorded, he shed tears freely. It was generally supposed 
that Provost Marshal Dick wished to celebrate the capture 
of Camp Jackson, and his little soul could devise no more 
appropriate mode than the arrest of an humble servant of 
Christ on the holy Sabbath-day, the 10th of May, 1863. 

For the twelve months previous to his last arrest. Dr. 
McAnally had, by his parole of honor, been confined to the 
limits of the county. He had sacredly kept his parole in 
every particular. Confining his ministerial duties chiefly to 
his own congregation, administering to the wants of the 
needy, visiting the sick, burying the dead, and speaking 
words of consolation to the bereaved and distressed, no 
man's walk could have been more blameless. Yet, his per- 
secutors were not satisfied. It could not have been charged 
that politics entered into his sermons or his praj-ers ; but he 
was not a Radical in his politics nor in his religion, and this 
constituted his ofl:ence. 

The following account is from the pen of the Rev. Dr. 
McAnally : 

" On the 21st day of April, 1862, I was arrested by order 
of the Provost Marshal at St. Louis, and immediately im- 
prisoned in what was then called Myrtle Street Military 
Prison. The order for arrest and imprisonment was per- 
emptory. J^o reasons were given ; none were asked, as arbi- 
trary arrests were matters of every-day occurrence ; and, in 
most cases, if reasons were asked, none were given. 

" From the first hour of my imprisonment, I calmly, but 
firmly, determined that, with a perfect consciousness of the 
purity of my motives and the rectitude of my conduct, I had 
violated no law, either civil or military ; that, in my heart, 
and in my-,conduct and conversation, I had- been true to the 
real interest of my country ; I would take no oath, give no 
bond, nor ask any favors, either directly or indirectly. iS[or 
did I do any of these things from the first to the last. I 



490 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

never asked why I had been arrested ; what M^ero tlie charges ; 
what the military intended to do, or what they wanted me 
to do. I knew there were no grounds for any charge what- 
ever ; that the whole proceeding, in regard to myself and 
others, was a low, cowardly effort to intimidate and humiliate 
men who formed their own opinions, preserved their own 
self-respect, and refused to he swayed to and fro l:>y the in- 
fluence or mere dictation of blind passions. So that, without 
anything like stubbornness, and in the entire absence, I trust, 
of all unchristian or ungentlemanly feeling, I resolved to 
make no concessions — having none to make — ask no favors, 
or do anything else that could be construed, either directly 
or indirectly, into an acknowledgment, 'on my part, of the 
right of the military to institute and carry out such pro- 
ceedings. 

" Besides, I was satisfied that it was not against me, jjer- 
sonally, so much as against me as the representative of a 
Christian denomination — the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South — that this warfare was to be waged. Many of the 
ministers of the same denomination had even then been 
driven from their flocks and from the State. Others had 
seen the storm coming and had left, while many more had 
been arrested and put under heavy bonds by Provost Mar- 
shals in different parts of the State ; and then, or soon after, 
some six or eight had been shot down as if tliey had been 
ferocious beasts. Some of those arrested had been told by 
military commanders that the fact of their being ministers 
of the Methodist Church, South, was ' enough to hang 
them ; ' and many of our members wei-e put under bonds or 
sent to prisons for no other ostensible reason than that they 
had subscribed, paid for, and read the ' St, Louis Christian 
Advocate,' an official organ of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South; then, and for ten years previously, under 
my editorial management. I was not a blatant Aboliti<mi.'<t, 
and had thrown some serious obstacles in the way of Ecclesi- 
astical Radicalism ; hence, the determination to be rid of 
both the paper and its editor. 



E E V. DAVID E. M c A N A L L Y, D. D. 491 

" At various times, during more than tliree months previous 
to the arrest, I had been warned of my danger, because of 
the religious, rather than the political opposition to me ; and 
some of my friends advised me to leave ; which I could have 
done on any day previous to the arrest. 

"On Sunday, the 13th of April, there was a consultation 
among '■ the faithful,' as to what course had best be pur- 
sued in reference to the ' St. Louis Christian Advocate,' and 
its editor. At this consultation, it was proposed, 

" 1st. To incite the soldiers, and let them tear down the 
building, and demolish the office of publication. But that 
proposition was rejected, because it was thought the influence 
on the minds of the people of the State would be bad ; that 
it would be going further than would be safe to their own 
cause. 

"2d. It was then proposed and agreed to, that an indict- 
ment for conspiracy against the Government of the United 
States should be drawn up for the action of the grand jury 
of the United States District Court, whicli was to sit next 
day. And in the event of the jury failing to find a true bill, 
then I must be summarily and arbitrarily arrested by order 
of the Provost Marshal, and sent to prison, aud the paper 
suppressed. 

"Accordingly, next day, Monday, the 14th, the Court met, 
and the grand jury was empanelled. Soon after, a bill was 
presented to them. Diligent inquiry was made; witnesses 
were summoned and carefully examined. Day after day the 
matter dragged on, until finally, on Saturday, the 19th, the 
jury, having completed their work, was discharged, and no 
action was taken to suppress the ' Advocate,' or presentment 
made against its editor. Partisans as they were, anfl corrupt 
as I know some of them to have been, they would not say, 
on their oaths, that a true bill for conspiracy could be found. 

"Hence, in accordance with the programme previously pre- 
pared, on Monday following the paper was arbitrarily sup- 
pressed, and I was arrested and imprisoned by order of the 
Provost Marshal, as already stated. 



492 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" The Marshal was one Captaiu Leighton, a man whose in- 
tellectual, moral, and social qualities, and whose early life 
and associations seem to have eminently qualified him for the 
work he was called on to perform. 

" The keeper of the prison placed me in a room twelve or 
fifteen feet square, with ten other prisoners, all of whom were 
genteel, worthy men, and some of them highly intellectual 
and cultivated. Tbey uniformly and in variably treated me 
■with respect and kindness, and really seemed to vie with each 
other in manifestations of kindly feeling. 

" In the same prison, in dift'erent parts, there were, per- 
haps, frapi an hundred to an hundred and fifty persons ; a 
few of w'hom had been regularly in the Confederate service, 
and captured ; others had been in the Federal service, and 
were then in prison for crime; while the great majority were 
citizens from difi'erent parts of the State, arrested on mere 
suspicion, and iii some cases had been imprisoned for weeks 
and months, with only the scant clothing they happened to 
have on when arrested. Some fifty or sixty such as these 
were in a miserable condition. But under the rags and dirt 
there w^ere some as noble hearts as ever throbbed. These, too, 
after I had been but a few days in prison, treated me with 
respect and kindness. Nor did any of the officers of the 
prison ever use toward me a disrespectful or an unkind word. 
I endeavored to deport myself in a dignified, respectful, gen- 
tlemanly, and Christian manner, and was everywhere met 
with a corresponding course. 

" It was my understanding, at the time, that the keeper of 
the prison was allowed a per diem for feeding the prisoners ; 
but whether that were so or not, he evidently drew rations 
for all, but allowed some twelve or fifteen to have their meals 
sent regularly from the Virginia Hotel, and I verily believe 
the hotel-keeper sent ' the very best his house could afford.' 
My meals were regularly sent three times each day by an 
estimable family living close by. 

" If any be curious to know how my time was occupied, 
they may learn from the following memoranda made at the 



E E V. DAVID R. M c A N A L L Y, D. D. 493 

time, on some fly-leaves of a Bible I used, and whicli is now 
before me : 

" April 21, 1862. Imprisoned at 7 o'clock p.m. 

" 22d. Read from the 90tb Psalm to the close of the Psalms. 

" 23d. Read Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and 
Isaiah. 

" 24th. Read Jeremiah and Ezekiel to chapter xx. 

" 25th. Read l)alance of Ezekiel, the Book of Daniel, and 
wrote outlines of two sermons. 

" 26th. Read the twelve Minor Prophets, and wrote 
sketches of two sermons. 

" 27th. Read the four Gospels. 

" 28th. Read Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles, and 
wrote two sketches. 

" 29th. Read from first of Hebrews to end of Revelation ; 
also the Book of Genesis, and wrote two sketches. 

" 30th. Read Exodus and wrote two sketches, (was sick.) 

" May 1st. Read Leviticus and JSTumbers, and wrote two 
sketches. 

" 2d. Read Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, and 
wrote two sketches. 

" 3d. Read First and Second Samuel, and wrote one sketch, 
(was sick.) 

" 4th. Read First and Second Kings, and wrote three 
sketches. 

" 5th. Read First and Second Chronicles, and wrote two 
sketches. 

" 6th. Read Ezra, K'ehemiah, Esther, and part of Job, and 
wrote two sketches. 

" 7th. Read the rest of Job, and the Book of Psalms. This 
puts me through the Bible in sixteen days ; and also wrote 
in all twenty-four sketches of sermons — two to-day. 

" 8th. Read Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and 
wrote part of a sermon in extenso. 

"9th. Read Isaiah, and finished the sermon. 

" 10th. Read Jeremiah, Lamentations, and part of Ezekiel, 
and wrote letters. 



494 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" lltli. Read the rest of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve 
Minor Prophets. 

" 12th. Read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and wrote part 
of a sermon and some long letters. 

" 13th. Read John, Acts, and Romans, and wrote six or 
eight pages of a sermon in extenso. 

" 14th. Read First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, 
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians , (First and 
Second,) First and Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and 
wrote nine pages of a sermon. 

" 15th. Read from first of Hebrews to end of Revelation, 
and wrote eleven pages on sermon. 

" 16th. Read Book of Genesis, and wrote on second sermon 
for the week. 

" 17th. Read Exodus, Leviticus, part of Numbers, finished 
second sermon {in extenso) for the week, and wrote four long 
letters. 

" 18th. Read remainder of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 
Ruth, and Judges. 

" 19th. Read First and Second Samuel, and wrote three 
long letters. 

" 20th. Read First and Second Kings ; and at two o'clock 
the officer of the prison was directed to release me on my 
verbal parole, to report forthwith at the ofiice of the Provost 
Marshal, which I did, and was then informed that charges 
and specifications had been drawn up, to which I would be 
required to answer before a Military Commission on the 23d ; 
and on my verbal parole I was released until that time. 

" 23d. Reported accordingly, when the parole was extended 
to Monday, the 26th. 

" On Monday, the 26th of May, I appeared before what 
was called a Military Commission, composed of Colonel Mer- 
rill, Major Shaw, and Captain Howard, the latter of whom 
acted as Judge Advocate. 

"These were all of the volunteer service, and, except the 
Colonel, were, perhaps, in the service more in name than in 
reality. The charge I was required to answer was that of 



REV. DAVID E. McANALLY, D. D. 495 

having violated 'the articles of war,' by the publication of 
sundry specified articles in the ' St. Louis Christian Advocate.' 
It was a little remarkable that a number of the articles Com- 
plained of had been copied from 'Blackwood's Magazine,' 
which publication had been freely circulated in the city for 
from one to three weeks before I made the extracts. 

"I objected in form to being tried by that tribunal, alleging 
that if I had committed an offence at all, it was an offence 
against civil, and not military law ; and claimed, as a citizen 
and civilian, to be tried by civil law. 

"I further objected on the grounds that many, if not all the 
articles complained of, had been published before the procla- 
mation of martial law in St. Louis ; and as no war had been 
formally declared, I could not, under the circumstances, be 
justly tried by the articles of war. 

"Several other exceptions were regularly filed, but all were 
overruled, as, indeed, I supposed they would be, and I only 
entered them to make a fair and full record. 

" The trial proceeded. The Judge Advocate threw on the 
table a number of copies of the 'Advocate,' with certain arti- 
cles therein marked, but did not read them openly ; and if 
either he or the other members of the ' Commission ' ever 
read them, the fact was and is unknown to me. The fiscal 
agent of the publishing house where the 'Advocate' was is- 
sued, was examined at great length, and with great care; 
and to all questions asked, he gave distinct, prompt, and 
truthful answers. This ended the first day's proceedings. 

" On the second day, a number of gentlemen were introduced 
■ — some who were well known to be among the most 'loyal' 
of the 'loyal,' and others who were suspected of having 
' Southern sympathies,' when my manner of life, in public 
and private, my manner of preaching, and the character and 
tone of my public prayers, were all diligently inquired into; 
but no one was found who, on his oath, would say that he 
ever saw or heard me do or say aught that was inconsistent 
with the character of a peaceful, law-abiding citizen, and 
Christian minister. 



496 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" I continued to introduce witnesses on these points until 
the Court expressed their entire satisfaction. 

'"It was then ordered that any defence I might choose to 
make should be prepared and presented to the Court on the 
next day. Accordingly, at the opening of the Court on the 
third day, I read a short paper, setting forth the grounds on 
which I thought I was entitled to be released from the prose- 
cution. 

" This closed the trial. I was then remanded to the care 
of the Provost Alarshal, who, on my pledge ' not to give aid 
and comfort to the enemies of the United States, nor to leave 
the county of St. Louis, and to report myself at that office 
whenever required,' I was allowed to go. This parole was 
kept hanging over me until the 19th day of IN'ovember, 
1865 — three years and six months from the time of the trial. 
The decision of the Court by which I was tried I have never 
had, nor ever known to this good hour ! ! Never. 

" I kept the parole faithfully, because it was a parole of 
honor. I suffered many inconveniences and discomforts be- 
cause of it, but still kept it, and did so uncomplainingly. 

" On Sunday, the 10th of May, 1863, while preparing for 
the evening services of the church, I was again arrested ; 
this time, by order of Provost IMarshal Dick. The arrest 
was made at my own house. After gathering a bundle of 
clothes, and having prayers with my motherless children, 
commending them to ' Him that judgeth righteously,' I 
accompanied the officer, and was by him delivered to the 
keeper of the Gratiot Street Military Prison. 

" Here there was a great number of persons, many pris- 
oners of war, and many citizens from different parts of the 
State, some of whom had been long confined ; and there were 
many others, residents in the city, who had but a little while 
before been brought in. 

" On the next day, Monday, the 11th, quite a number of 
us were notified that we would be sent South, beyond the 
Federal lines, and would be started at twelve o'clock, on 



REV. DAVID E. M c A N A L L Y, D. D. 497 

Wednesday, the 13th. Vfe accordingly made what prepara- 
tion we could. 

" I Avas informed that I would be allowed to carry a limited 
amount of clothing, and two hundred dollars in money. The 
clothing I had. The money I had not. I had but a very 
few dollars in the world, and was leaving my children not only 
motherless, but penniless. Some friends outside the prison 
learned my condition, and the two hundred dollars were 
quickly furnished. One-half of the sum was sent by a high- 
toned gentleman, who was then serving as a Colonel in the 
Federal service — a man whose every sense of honor was out- 
raged by the proceedings against me. Had the sum been 
needed, I believe two thousand or ten thousand dollars would 
have been furnished me. 

" On Wednesday, the 13th, those of us who had been 
ordered into banishment were paraded and marched, between 
two files of soldiers, through some of the principal streets of 
the city, to the steamer which was to bear us South. The 
whole number of prisoners on the boat was, perhaps, an hun- 
dred or more, including men, women, and children. 

" Just before the boat left the landing, an order came coun- 
termanding the order of my banishment, and directing that 
I should bo sent to the office of the Frovost Marshal. This 
was done ; and the other prisoners were sent South. At the 
Marshal's office, I was directed to report there in person at 
eleven o'clock, the next day, and in the mean time I might 
do anything not inconsistent with the parole I had given a 
year before. 

" At the appointed hour next day, I reported myself at the ■ 
office of the Frovost Marshal, Colonel Dick. He expressed 
a desire for a long conversation, and commenced in a sorl zf 
apologetic way, by stating how much pleasure it gave him to 
rectify any mistake he might make, or undo any wrong he 
might happen to commit; and, as he had been led into a mis- 
take in regard to my arrest and order of banishment, he had 
much pleasure in countermanding the order, etc. 

" The conversation was protracted, and very plain. The 

.' 32 



498 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Colonel was reminded that the old ideas regarding civil rights, 
civil law, personal liberty, etc., were not entirely obsolete; 
and that it might be well for persons temporarily in authority 
to remember that orders for the arrest, imprisonment, and 
banishment of persons, and the confiscation or destruction 
of property, ought to be based on something else than suspi- 
cion or vague rumor. 

" Finally, the conversation was ended by the Colonel sud- 
denly remembering that he had some important business just 
then, and requesting me to call the next day, that the inter- 
view might be renewed. I did call the next day, and the 
next, and the next, for many days, but, from the day of that 
interview to the present, never found the Colonel at leisure. 
Soon after that he was relieved of his position and duties as 
Provost Marshal, and not a great while afterward, no doubt 
for good and sufficient reasons, he left the city and State. 

" The Colonel gave no reasons for my arrest, nor was he 
asked for any. Perhaps he was not aware that I had learned 
that his order for my arrest had been issued at the instance 
of a couple of ignorant and bigoted old women connected 
with the ' Loyal League,' and who had been instigated by 
two men, who, for private reasons, desired that I might be 
banished. 

" These two men have since fully developed the very unen- 
viable character which I then knew they possessed. And, 
perhaps, he was not aware, second, that I had learned that 
his order countermanding the order for banishment had been 
issued on the peremptory command of the General (Curtis) 
then in command. Or, third, that General Curtis had acted 
on the representation of at least two of his own Colonels, 
who had assured him, first, that the order was in itself 
wrong, unjust, and an outrage ; and, second, that to let it be 
carried out would do great harm to the Union cause. One 
of them told the General that the very fact of my being in 
the South, under the circumstances then existing, would do 
as much harm to their cause as could be done by a thousand 
armed men, and added : ' I do not know what he may do in 



REV. DAVID E. M c A N A L L Y, D. D. 499 

the South ; but I do know that, if he exert himseh'as I know 
him capable of doing, you might as well send five thousand 
armed men to help the Eebels as to send him. However 
peaceably disposed he may be now, we cannot expect him to 
continue so, if this outrage is carried on.' 

" Perhaps the Colonel was not aware I had learned all this 
and much more. Still, he may have thought of it, when he 
asked me what I would do if sent South ? and in reply, I 
simply answered, ' You may rely upon it, sir, I will eat no 
idle bread.' 

" In all this time, I allude only to the arrests which were 
followed by actual imprisonment, saying nothing of an arrest 
made in September, 1861 ; made not on a charge of anything 
having been done, but on suspicion that something ' might 
be done.' 

" I was quite ill at the time, bat was taken in my office, 
carried before the Provost Marshal, where, defenceless and 
surrounded by armed men, I was coarsely harangued and 
vilified, abused and lectured as to my editorial and minis- 
terial duties, during a half-hour or more, which was, at 
length, terminated by my plainly informing the Marshal that 
as I was in their power, the military could do with me as 
they chose ; that they had the power and could suppress my 
paper when they pleased ; but until it was suppressed, it 
should contain just what I might think proper to put in it, 
neither more nor less. The Provost Marshal was one John 
McNeil, of Palmyra prisoners' notorietv. 

" Nor have I alluded to the fact that, in July, ISHl, a mob 
of the ' Home Guards,' so called, threatened to destroy my 
dwelling-house and church, because I had publicly baptized 
a child, whose parents chose to call it Harry Beauregard ; 
which mob desisted from their purpose only a few short 
hours before that purpose was to have been accomplished ; 
and not then, until after one of their principal men had been 
told there were not less than thirty or forty men who would, 
at the risk of their lives, hold him personally responsible for 
all harm that might befall me from the mob. 



500 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

" iSTor 3^et. have I alluded to the fact that, in July, 1861, a 
company of armed men, forty-four in number, wearing the 
uniform of United States soldiers, and acting ])rqfessedly 
under orders from headquarters, surrounded my house, and 
ransacked it from cellar to garret. What they expected to 
find, or were looking for, I never asked, I never knew, l^or 
to the ransacking of my editorial ofhce ; the destruction of 
my private papers, etc., etc., which was done in April, 1862, 
when I was absent ; nor to the almost numberless unlawful 
and unjust indignities, disabilities, etc., that were put upon 
me during the three years and more that I was a prisoner. 
!Nor yet have I alluded to the horrible outrages, cruelties, 
and barbarities which I saw practised on helpless prisoners, 
and for no reason whatever. All this I pass by. If an ac- 
count of them be given, let it be given by others." 



ORMO^D BARRETT, THOMAS C. MacDOWELL, J. 
MONTGOMERY FOSTER, and M. J. JONES. 

O'N the 6th of August, 1862, at about 4 o'clock a.m., Tro- 
vost Marshal Lafayette C. Baker, of Washington City, 
D. C, accompanied by Captain I. Dodge, (then acting as mus- 
tering officer and Provost Marshal at Ilarrisburg, Pennsyl- 
vania,) the Chief of Police of that city, and a file of United 
States soldiers, arrested Messrs. Ormond Barrett and Thomas 
C. MacDowell, Editors and Proprietors of the " Patriot and 
Union," a Democratic daily and weekly newspaper, pub-' 
lished at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, together with J. Mont- 
gomery Foster, Assistant Editor, and M. J. Jones, Local Editor 
of the said paper. The arrest of the above-named orentlemeu 
was made at their respective homes, within a few minutes of 
each other. Colonel MacDowell's residence was first visited, 
and his arrest first made. When the object of their visit 
was made known to the Colonel by the Provost Marshal, 
which was done from the steps of his dwelling, where Baker 
stood dressed in the full uniform of a Captain of Lifantry, 
the door was opened and Colonel MacDowell asked the mean- 
ing of the presence of armed men, who were surrounding his 
premises. 

Both Baker and Dodge announced their desire to see Colo- 
nel MacDowell, and requested to be admitted to the house. 
The Colonel answered that Captains Baker and Dodge, and 
the Chief of Police might enter, but none of the armed guard 
then present. This was assented to, and Baker, Dodge, and 
Chief of Police B. Campbell stepped into the parlor, whore 
the following dialogue ensued : 

Colonel MacDowell. " What is your business with me, 

gentlemen ? " 

501 



502 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

, Captain Baker. " I am ordered to arrest you, sir." 

Col. MacD. " Have you authority, in wn-iting, to make 
my arrest ? " 

Capt. B. " I have." 

Col. MacD. " Will you be kind enough to show me the 
authority ? " 

Baker drew from his breast-pocket a paper and handed it 
to the Colonel, which purported to be an order from General 
H. W. Halleck, General-in-Chief, commanding Baker to pro- 
ceed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and arrest Messrs. 0. Bar- 
rett, Thomas C. MacDowell, J. Montgomery Foster, and M. J. 
Jones, Editors and Proprietors of tlie " Patriot and Union" 
newspaper, and convey them to Washington City, to be tried 
by a Military Commission, for publishing a certain handbill 
discouraging enlistments, and that he (the Provost Marshal) 
*' shall seize the presses, type, fixtures, and all the property 
found in the ' Patriot and Union ' printing establishment, 
and turn the same over to the United States Quartermaster 
at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who shall forward the same to 
Washington City." (For some reason, the confiscation por- 
tion of the order was never execiited.) 

Colonel MacDowell then asked permission to put up a few 
articles of clothing, and also to inform his family of the 
necessity of his absence. An hour was readily granted for this 
purpose, and on promise of Colonel MacDoAvell that he would 
report himself at the jNIayor's oflice at the expiration of the 
allotted time, (5 o'clock a.m..) the Marshal and his posse left 
his premises. About 5 o'clock a.m., Messrs. Barrett, Mac- 
Dowell, Foster, and Jones were at the Mayor's office, and at 
about six o'clock they were marched off by the Provost Mar- 
shal and a file of soldiers, with muskets and fixed bayonets, 
to the depot of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, and put 
on the cars, with the Marshal and a guard of soldiers as close 
attendants. 

On arriving at the cars, they found, for the first time, Brig- 
adier-General James Wadsworth, then acting Military Gov- 
ernor of the District of Columbia, who, as they were in- 



OKMOND BARKETT AND OTHERS. 503 

formed, liad come to Ilarrisburg to superintend tlieir arrest, 
but who had taken care to be neither seen nor known by any 
one until after the arrests were made, and the prisoners seated 
in the cars. General Wadsworth was in the full uniform of 
a Brigadier-General of the United States Army, without 
side-arms. Arriving at Washington, General Wadsworth 
ordered the prisoners to be lodged in the Old Capitol Prison, 
by the Marshal, who still had them in charge. They were 
marched thither and handed over to the Superintendent, Wil- 
liam P.Wood, who, after carefully examining their baggage 
and persons, assigned them room I^o. 10, where they were 
kept, as the other prisoners were in that place, until the 23d 
of August, 1862, when they were liberated, after undergoing 
the consummate tarce of an examination by Judge Advocate 
L. C. Turner, in the presence of General Wadsworth. 

When brought before the Judge Advocate, they demanded 
the affidavit upon which they had been arrested, the name or 
names of their accuser or accusers, and the specific charges 
that justified the great outrage that had been perpetrated in 
their arrest and incarceration ; but, strange to tell, both the 
Judge Advocate and General WadsAvorth had to acknowl- 
edge that there was no written specific charge, no accuser or 
accusers ; and, after taking their respective statements under 
oath, in which they severally stated their unconsciousness of 
having committed any crime or oftence against the Govern- 
ment, the Constitution, or the laws of the land, they were 
told they were at liberty to go whithersoever they pleased. 
The}^ left Washington on the following morning, the 24th 
of August, 1862, and arrived at their homes in Harrisburg, 
the same evening, after an imprisonment of eighteen days. 



PHILIP IIILBISIL 

'V/TR. PHILIP IIILBISH is a native of* Pennsylvania, and 
-XL -vvas born in 1813. In early life, with commendable am- 
bition, lie determined to acquire an education. By his own 
industry, he fitted himself for, and graduated at college, with 
the highest honors. 

His first enterprise, subsequently, was to enter into partner- 
ship with a friend in the mercantile business, in which he 
continued six years. At the expiration of that time, he had 
accumulated enough money, from an original investment of 
fifteen hundred dollars, to commence business on his own 
account. He removed, in 1845, to Mclvee's Half Falls, about 
twelve miles distant from Liverpool, Perry County, and 
rented a store and hotel. His business proved eminently 
successful, from strict attention, so that, in the third year, he 
bought the property he had rented, for twelve thousand dol- 
lars, for which he has since been offered forty-five thousand 
dollars. 

Continued success enabled him to purchase the valuable 
property of Dr. A. S. Cummings, at Selin's Grove, Snyder 
County, where he now resides, respected for his energy and 
perseverance, and beloved for his upright and manly charac- 
ter, and practical benevolence. He was invited by his Ee- 
publican neighbors to call a mass meeting, and urge u]3on 
the people the duty of enlisting in the armj^ to suppress the 
rebellion. He firmly but courteously declined, adding "that 
he had no objection to any person enlisting in the service 
who desired to do so, but that he would urge it upon no one." 
His two sons subsequently joined the army, and were honor- 
ably discharged. The one served over two years, and the 

other four years and two months. 

504 



PHILIP HILBISH. 505 

On the 27th of July, 1863, Mr. Hilbish was standing in 
front of his hotel, in Middleburg, conversing with a friend, 
when he was arrested by Captain Cox and Henry S. Boyer, 
the latter an unmitigated scoundrel, who spat in his face. 
The Captain then requested Mr, Hilbish to walk with them 
to his (the Captain's) office, which he declined to do, remark- 
ing that if the Captain had any business with him, he could 
step into the hotel. After a few moments' further conversa- 
tion, Captain Cox told Hilbish to consider himself under 
arrest. "JSTot at all," said H., "unless you can show your 
authority." He then turned to go to the Court-house, where 
the Democratic Convention was in session. As he did so, 
ten or twelve men, who were aiding the Captain in his nefa- 
rious work, emerged from various places of concealment, and 
pursued H., calling on him to " Stop, or they would shoot 
him." Looking back he saw some of them levelling their 
revolvers at him. He quickened his pace, but, before reach- 
ing the steps of the Court-house, he was overtaken and sur- 
rounded by "these troops of devils, mad with blasphemy," 
who seized him, amid cries of "Hang him," and "Yes, he 
must be hung before to-morrow night." AVhile he was held 
by those around him, an escaped convict from Centre County, 
named Kepheart, stepped in front of him and kicked him 
several times in the abdomen. He was repeatedly beaten 
over the head and face by the ruffians, and was struck several 
times with the butt-end of a revolver, cutting deep gashes 
in his face, the scars of which will be effiiced only by the 
grave. J^early exhausted from the pain of the blows, and 
the blood which flowed freely from his wounds, he was 
pushed across the street to a wagon in waiting, and thrust 
into it. The noise in the street — the yells of the miscreants 
— the groans of the prisoner — and the screaming of the wo- 
men who rushed to the scene, aroused the Convention. The 
members, who had just nominated Mr. Hilbish, by acclama- 
tion, as their candidate for the Legislature, came rushing to 
the spot, but were kept back by tlie menacing attitude of the 
crowd which encircled him, and which had increased to 



506 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

about one liundrcd men. They presented their revolvers, 
and pointing them toward the advancing members, frantically 
cried, "Stand back, stand back; we will shoot down any man 
that will even dare to speak to him." Exhausted as Mr. 
Ililbish was, and with the blood still oozing from his wound, 
the wagon was hurriedly driven away, as they said, to 
Lewistown. After driving about a mile, they changed their 
course, and drove over hills, and through byways, to Lewis- 
burg, in Union County, where the prisoner arrived so weak 
from the loss of blood as to be scarcely able to stand. Here 
he was confined in a room, refused counsel, or permission to 
w^rite to his anxious family to inform them of his where- 
abouts. Thence he was hurriedly conveyed to Ilarrisburg 
the same night. Two of his custodians, Kepheart, and an 
equally degraded associate, named Woods, continually blas- 
phemed and threatened the prisoner's life, from the time he 
left Aliddleburg until they arrived at Harrisburg. 

In the evening after Mr. Ililbish's arrest, JVIajor John 
Cummings, a man of indomitable energy, believing that the 
prisoner had been taken to Harrisburg, proceeded thither, 
determined to render his friend all the aid that lay in his 
power. At eight o'clock on the following morning, he found 
Mr. Hilbish in prison, and ascertained that he was to be tried 
at ten o'clock the same day. Having but two hours for in- 
vestigation and preparation, he proceeded directly to the 
office of General Clement, the District Brovost Marshal, to 
ascertain the charges against the prisoner. A sheet of fools- 
cap paper, filled with charges, was handed him. The prin- 
cipal charges on this long list were, belonging to the Knights 
of the Golden Circle — speaking disrespectfully of Mr. Lin- 
coln and his Administration — discouraging enlistments, and 
opposing the Government generally. The Major asked Gen- 
eral Clement for permission to take Mr. H. to an attorney 
for consultation. His request was reluctantly granted, and 
they proceeded under guard to the office of R. Lamberton, 
Esq., who, on hearing the particulars, expressed himself 
ready and willing to do all in his power to aid the prisoner. 



PHILIP HILBISH. 507 

After some further consultatioii, they proceeded to the Court- 
house, where they arrived" at teu o'clock, the hour appointed 
for the triaL The prosecution averring that they were not 
ready, the case was postponed until four o'clock in the after- 
noon, when, the Court being again convened, a further con- 
tinuance was asked. This was objected to by the counsel for 
the defendant, who urged a trial at once. After going into 
an examination of the witnesses, the Government counsel 
failed to prove a single charge from the list shown Major 
Cummings by the District Provost Marshal. After having 
partially proceeded, and admitting their probable failure with 
the testimony at their command, the prosecutors again al- 
leged that they had and could get other testimony to prove 
their charges, and asked for the third continuance, which 
was likewise granted. The prisoner was remanded to prison, 
to again appear before the court at 2 o'clock p.m., on Tuesday 
following. 

As Mr. Hilbish's wife had not yet discovered where he 
was, and to aftbrd him an opportunity to visit her and 
relieve her anxiety. Major Cummings and Mr. Lamberton 
offered any amount of security for his appearance on the day 
appointed for trial, from one to two hundred thousand dol- 
lars if necessary ; but it was refused. Major Cummings then 
offered to deposit with the Court one thousand dollars as secu- 
rity for his reappearance, and in case of failure, to forfeit the 
same. This offer was reluctantly accepted ; but as the Major 
turned and was walking through the Court-house toward the 
bank to obtain the money, he was recalled and informed by 
General Clement that he had no right to accept money ^ and the 
only alternative left was to send the accused back to prison, 
and keep him there until the next Tuesday. After a few 
moments' consideration, the Marshal offered to release Mr. 
Ililbish on his giving bonds for ten thousand dollars, with a 
freeholder of Harrisburg as security. "While the bond was 
being drawn up, Mr. H. was called upon and asked what he 
had to say. lie defended himself ably in a short speech, 
completely vindicating his character from the foul aspersions 



50S AMERICAN BASTILE. 

whicli malignity had heaped upon him, and exposing the 
infamy of the ringleader of the dastardly outrage. At the 
conclusion of his remarks, the Court proposed to liberate him 
on his own and his friend's word of honor, for his appearance. 
This was agreed to, and the Court adjourned. At the ap- 
pointed hour on Tuesday, Mr. Ililbish, accompanied by liis 
counsel and friend, Major Cummings, again appeared before 
this august military tribunal. After a few preliminaries, the 
Government's counsel arose and said, "As there was no one 
appearing against Mr. Hilbish, or to accuse him of any of the 
charges alleged, he is therefore discharged, and may go 
home." Thus ended this case, which for brutality and injus- 
tice is not exceeded in the history of the " Council of Ten," 
or the " Star Chamber" decrees. 



% III 

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HON. MADISO]^ Y. JOHN-SOIT. 

0^. MADISO]Sr Y. JOHN"SOI^ resides at Galena, Illi- 
nois, and is one of the ablest and most successful law- 
yers in that part of the State. He is a gentleman of fine 
personal appearance, and about fifty-five years of age. He 
is independent and self-reliant in his character, but of gene- 
rous impulses and courteous manners. His arbitrary arrest 
and imprisonment were, perhaps, among the most remarkable 
that occurred during the war, whether considered in a politi- 
cal light, or otherwise, from the fact that he had been the 
warm personal and political friend of Mr. Lincoln when they 
were old "Whigs together. The personal friendship, which 
had so long existed between them, was not in the least dis- 
turbed up to the time of Mr. Johnson's arrest. 

Mr. Lincoln, on his last visit to Galena, in the j^resence of 
several of their mutual friends, urged Mr. Johnson to join 
his party ; and on being told that it would drift into an 
Abolition party, and that if it got into power it would cause 
a separation of the Union of the States, Mr. Lincoln said : 
" We can control the matter if the old Whigs and Conserva- 
tives will take hold ; that there would be a change, they were 
coming into power, and that new men were to fill the posi- 
tions ; and that he (Mr. J.) could have anything he desired 
if he would go with them." Mr. Johnson replied, that "his 
political views, like his religious opinions, were not a matter 
for barter ; that he could hold no political fellowship with 
such men as Codding and Lovejoy, and that such as they 
would control the party." 

Mr. Lincoln then said, " he regretted to part with him 
more than from any man in that part of the State, but they 
should always I'espect each other. ^^ 

509 



510 AMEKICAN BASTILe! 

We allude to these things now to show how faithless to 
his promises Mr. Lincoln was, after he became President. We 
need not notice the history of events in this narrative further 
than to say, that all the propositions made looking to a set- 
tlement of the troubles between the North and the South, 
without a resort to arms, Mr. Johnson favored ; and when the 
actual conflict came, and during its prpgress, he was found 
the uncompromising advocate of. peace. 

He was the author of a peace resolution passed at a mass 
meeting held at Springfield, during the war; and as a part 
of the history of the country, and as particularly expressing 
his views, we copy it : 

" Resolved., That the further offensive prosecution of the 
war tends to subvert the Constitution and Government, and 
entail upon the nation all the disastrous consequences of mis- 
rule and anarchy. That we are in favor of peace upon the 
basis of a restored Union ; and for the accomplishment of 
which, we jDropose a National Convention to settle upon terms 
of peace, which shall have in view the restoration of the 
Union as it was, and the securing by constitutional amend- 
ments such rights to the States and the people thereof as 
honor and justice demand." 

He always advocated the doctrine that the theory of the 
American Government was that of consent, and not force. 

The particular cause of his arrest, or who instigated it, has 
never been known. After a most searching investigation at 
the War Department, and an examination of the public 
archives in Washington, it does not appear that any S2:)ecific 
charge was ever made or filed against him ; but it would 
seem that the act was directed by the President himself, 
as established in a judicial proceeding subsequently had, in 
which the United States Marshal pleaded that the arrest was 
made by order of the President as a "military necessity, and 
that he was held as a belligerent and prisoner of war." 

Mr. Johnson, while engaged in the defence of a murder 
case, was arrested in open court, on the afternoon of the 28th 
of August, 1862, by the United States Marshal, on a tele- 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 511 

graphic despatch from Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, 
without complaint, warrant, or form of law, hurried off, 
more than a thousand miles, to a foreign State, and incarcer- 
ated within the dark walls of an American Bastile. As it 
will be regarded a matter of curiosity in American history 
to know how these arrests were made, and how citizens, not 
charged with an oft'ence, were treated under the brutal sys- 
tem adopted during Mr, Lincoln's Administration, we have 
been at some trouble to learn the facts, and here present 
them. 

Mr. Johnson's case is not dissimilar to the general history 
of many others. He was conveyed from his home, in Galena, 
Illinois, to Chicago, where he overtook Mr. Sheean, who had 
been arrested only a few hours before him ; thence, in com- 
pany with that gentleman, he was transported to !N"ew York 
city, and handed over, at Ehn Street, to the tender care of 
Kennedy, Superintendent of Police. This man was the well- 
known jailer of Mrs. Isabel Brinsmade, who was confined, 
for forty dai/s, in a dungeon in one of the station-houses in 
!N^ew York, without any one knowing where she was, and 
without any charge against her. Mr. Johnson was confined 
in what was known as the " Inner Temple," a low, dirty, ill- 
ventilated room, partially under ground. Here, for the first 
time, the prisoner began to realize what it meant to be a 
"prisoner of state." 

From there, he was conveyed, closely guarded, to Fort 
Hamilton, where Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, a grufi' old sol- 
dier, on seeing the despatch from Stanton to incarcerate him 
in Fort Lafayette, ordered out a file of soldiers under an 
officer, by whom he was escorted to the vessel which carried 
him to the Fort. 

"While crossing to the Fort, he could observe the dark, 
dungeon-like walls of the octagonal-shaped Fort, black, frown- 
ing, and solitary, arising from 

. . . ; "those hidden rocks, where sleep 
The channelled waters, dark and deep." 



512 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

The thought came hurriedly to his mind, Can this be re- 
publican America? or are we the victims of French and 
Austrian despotism ? When a prisoner entered the jjortals 
of this Fort, he was dead, so far, at least, as the outside world 
was concerned, and soon found himself subject to the unbri- 
dled caprice of a " despotism that knew no bounds." 

On entering the Fort, Mr. Johnson was taken to the office 
of the Commandant, who, on learning his name and resi- 
dence, entered them in a register, w^ithout preface or apologj-. 
lie then, with the sangfroid of a highwayman, demanded his 
watch, money, gold pencil, studs, finger-rings, medicines, 
trunk-key, etc., as unnecessary to be retained by the prisoner. 
Mr. Johnson says, " I handed them over reluctantly to a man 
of whom I had formed a bad opinion." He was then taken 
to an anteroom, accompanied by a sergeant and two soldiers, 
to manage him, should he prove refractory. Here he was 
divested of his clothing, and searched. They were rewarded 
with finding in his breast-pocket two percussion-caps, which 
were, no doubt, laid before the eyes of the astonished Lieu- 
tenant as dangerous matter ; perhaps, diminutive torpedoes 
by which the massive foundations of the Fort were to be 
blown to atoms. After this was accomplished, he was dis- 
missed, and told that his trunk would be sent to him when 
examined. 

He was then taken to Battery ITo. 6, a long room on a level 
with the ground, and having a brick floor. Here he was 
furnished with an iron stretcher, a mattress, and a blanket. 
This room contained five heavy cannons, mounted on car- 
riages, ranged side by side, and each pointed through a port- 
hole, so as to command the channel. The place was filthy, 
'lamp, and dark — the air fetid and unwholesome. He 
found in it some forty-seven prisoners, crammed together 
among the gun-carriages, and as uncomfortable as they could 
be made. These persons soon instructed him in the disci- 
pline of the Fort, which consisted of every petty annoyance . 
that could be invented to render the situation of a prisoner 
disagreeable, and, if possible, to break down his spirit, destroy 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 513 

Ills manhood, and cause him to accept such terms as were 
prescribed by the Administration as the price of liberty. 

The Bastile, like death, l^rings to an equality all it swal- 
lows up. The undaunted patriot, guilty of no crime but 
that of maintaining the rights of a freeman, and who dared 
to speak in opposition to the Administration, is treated 
with more severity than the wretch, who would Ijctray 
his country for gold. Here were men wearing the insignia 
and uniform of an honorable service, degraded to be tlio 
tools of a despotism that has scarcely a parallel even in tlie 
Bastile of France. They were sensible of the shameful and 
cowardly service imposed, and sought to justify themselves 
as the agents of a lawful power, saying that " they simply 
obeyed orders." They had given themselves up as williuu- 
instruments of outrage and wrong, and felt that an i<;noniin- 
ious punishment would be a just reward for their coinplianee. 
Had they not lost all self-respect, and sul)mitted themselves, 
as mere machines to do the will of arbitrary power, they would 
have felt the dishonor of their work sticking as close to them 
as did " the poisoned shirt of Nessus to the back of Hercules."' 

Mr. Johnson was subjected to the rigor and petty tyranny 
of a shoulder-strapped turnkey, wdio compelled the prisoners 
to submit to the taunts and insults of the sentinels put over 
them, night and day. The prisoners were reprimanded or 
punished if they retorted, or resented the taunts or acts of 
the soldiery, some of whom took every occasion to insvdt 
them. They were com[)elled to go to the sally-port and ask 
permission of the Sergeant to go to the other prisoners' quar- 
ters, or to draw a bucket of water out of the cistern at tlieir 
own door. The same permission was required to get coal or 
w^ood. They were compelled, also, to stay in their apartments, 
or wnthin a space of fifteen feet square in front of them, 
except for a few moments, morning and evening, when all the 
prisoners, except Soule, Mazzaran, and Thomas, were allowed 
to mingle together in the open court, a space about thirt\' 
yards square, within the Fort. This was all the exercise 
allowed. 

83 



514 america:n" bastile. 

The wives and friends of tlie inmates who came to visit 
them, after first going to Washington, and, as a great favor, 
obtaining a pass from Secretary Stanton to enter, were required 
to hold their conversations, which were limited to an hour, 
in the presence of the Commandant. At the close of these 
interviews, a guard marched the prisoners back to their quar- 
ters, and the visitors were set on shore. The interviews were 
duly noted and reported to Washington, with such comments 
as were thought proper and necessary. 

At sunset, the prisoners were compelled to "get into their 
holes." The doors were locked upon them, while the wiudow 
on the same side, large enough to admit a man's body, was 
left open. They were not allowed to talk or have a light 
after 9 o'clock p.m. ; and, as Mr. Johnson was informed, the 
sentinel had, a short time before he arrived, fired through 
this w'indow on the prisoners for conversing, in disobedience 
of orders. They w^ere not allowed conversation with the 
soldiers, and on one occasion, when one of the latter w^as 
arranging the window, or fire-grate, an ofiicer with an armed 
sentinel stood by for hours, to prevent communication. 
When a ship Avas fired on, in order to make her return and 
report to the revenue-cutter, they were all locked up ; and 
on one occasion, w^hen the British ship "Dispatch" refused 
to return, but anchored under the guns of the -Fort, they 
viere kept confined for forty-eight hours. They were also 
locked up when those in solitary confinement were taken 
into the presence of the Commandant. 

THE MANIAC. 

"A scheming villain forged the tale 
That chains me in this dreary cell : 
My fate unknown, my friends bewail ; 

'sentry,' haste that fate to tell! 
Oh, haste my 'mother's' heart to cheer; 

Her heart, at once, 'twill grieve and glad 
To know, though chained and captive here, 

1 am not mad ! I am not mad ! " 

There was confined in one of the cells of Fort Lafayette, 



MADISON y. JOHNSON". 515 

a poor prisoner from Baltimore. He was a " political prison- 
er," and manifested synnptoms of insanity. His friends, and 
some of the pliysicians who were among the prisoners, called 
Lieutenant Wood's attention to the case. He treated the 
statement with contemptuous indifference at the time ; but a 
few days afterward, the prisoner was sent to the guard-house. 
Instead of being sent instantly to the asylum, he was kept in 
the guard-house, and in double irons. 

His cell was darkened, a sentry marched night and day 
before his prison-door ; and he was permitted no intercourse, 
not even to see the other prisoners or friends. Surrounded 
by strange soldiers, he was, at times, apparently in an agony 
of dread. His shrieks were fearful, and one dark night, when 
lie imagined he was about to be murdered, his screams 
were painfully startling to hear. In some of these parox- 
ysms, he was actually gagged by the soldiers. So strict was 
his confinement, that when an aged and widowed mother, 
who for months had been seeking to obtain an interview 
with her son, at last, having obtained it, came one Sabbath- 
day to visit him, he was taken from his dungeon to the 
Commandant's room, in which she was permitted to see him, 
by a file of soldiers detailed to guard him from his cell; but 
not before all the other prisoners were locked in their rooms, 
and a double guard placed in the sally-port. A letter written 
by one of the prisoners to the counsel of the unfortunate man, 
in Baltimore, urging the exercise of his influence with the Go- 
vernment, on behalf of the sufierer, was not allowed to reach its 
destination, although directed to the care of Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral Scott. Pie was detained in the Fort until he became a 
raving maniac. In this condition, Mr. Stanton's oath of loyalty 
was administered to him, and he placed on shore as helpless 
as a child. He would doubtless have perished, had he not 
been picked up and cared for by strangers. In this instance, 
a kind Providence threw in his way Mr. Hopkins and Mrs. 
Gelston, who cared for him until his friends could come to 
their relief, and bear him home to an early grave. 

It may be asked, could it be possible,. that these things 



516 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

should occur in a Christian community, and not arouse every 
instinct of our natures to right the wrong? We forget, 
when we ask that question, that a prisoner within the walls 
of Fort Lafjtyette was beyond the reach of the process of the 
courts. A brass six-pounder, derisively called the '■'■habeas 
corpus,^' stood loaded, to guard the sally-port of the Fort, 
and sweep out of existence the Sheriif and his posse, should 
he attempt to execute a writ of habeas corpus on the com- 
mander. A prisoner could have no communication with his 
friends, except by permission, and thus every right of a free- 
man beino; outrao-ed, he coald have no means of making 
known his complaints, or of publicly exposing the crimes 
committed by those in authority. 

Mr. Johnson says : " Here you would see men from almost 
all the States, the largest portion of whom were in the vigor 
of manhood. You would find men who had ably represented 
our Government at foreign courts, had adorned the United 
States Senate, been Governors of States, Judges of Courts, 
members of Congress, State legislators, doctors, lawyers, 
farmers, and indeed almost all departments of business were 
liere represented, liot one of whom was tainted with any 
crime." 

At reveille the doors were unlocked, and light and air 
admitted to the prisoners. Shortly after, breakftist would 
be announced, when they were marched under guard, a few 
yards, to Battery ~So. 1. Here was set a long table, made by 
placing rough pine boards on trestles, so as to raise it about the 
height of a man's breast, wdien standing. On this table, as- 
signed to each prisoner, was a dirty tin plate, with a piece of 
bread, and a tincup of what was called coflce, made and sweet- 
ened in a large iron vessel. This was the breakfast. Supper 
was the same, with the addition of a raw onion occasionally, 
as an antiscorbutic. Dinner, which was the cliief meal, con- 
sisted of a cup of water, a piece of boiled fat pork, cold, and a 
piece of bread. "When the scurvy made its appearance among 
some of the prisoners, fresh meat and vegetables were some- 
times allowed. The cutler}- consisted of a pocket-knife, if 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 517 

the prisoner liacl been fortunate enongli to retain one ; other- 
wise his teeth supplied the deficiency. All meals were par- 
taken of standing, and in silence. A guard with a musket 
and fixed bayonet stood at the backs of the prisoners. When 
the meal was finished, they were marched back to their 
quarters. 

In addition to the many acts of barbarism, we cite one: 
John Ilipkins was put in the guard-house, a darkened place, 
six feet long and proportionately wide, and there compelled 
to remain, and sleep upon the brick floor without bedding or 
covering, for twelve days and nights. This punishment was 
inflicted because he had wrested a chair out of another pris- 
oner's hand, which was in dispute between them. 

AVho can form an idea of the dull monotony of Bastile 
life at Fort Lafayette? Language is inadequate to de- 
scribe the anxiety and ennui of the prisoners, as hour 
after hour, and day after day, they longed for their re- 
lease. It was hope bafiiing despair. " To-day, hope put 
forth- her tender leaves, which on the morrow were withered 
by the sun of despair." To their right and left were men in 
solitary confinement, some of whom had not seen the liglit 
of day for months — denied all communication or association 
with their fellow-prisoners, and even refused the use of a 
Bible — their condition was miserable. The guard, in hand- 
ing their scanty supply of bread and water, was prohibited 
from answering any questions, further than to say, " I will 
report your request to the ofiicer of the day," or, " It is not 
allowed." AVho can wonder at the wrecks of humanity 
incarceration caused ? 

"We now give a short sketch of the casemates. They were 
occupied, generally, either as mess-rooms or places for solitary 
confinement. Sometimes, however, several persons occupied 
one casemate. AVhen casemate Xo. 4, which had been occu- 
pied by Dr. Olds as a solitary prison-house or dungeon, was 
converted into a mess-room for thirteen prisoners, and the 
barricade taken down so as to admit light and air, it. was 
curious to examine the calendar of events kept by him, on 



518 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the walls of that dark and lonesome prison, Ly means of an 
old rusty nail, during the long and dreary days and nights 
of his solitary imprisonment, in that dark hell. 

To understand the construction of the casemates fully, the 
reader is informed that Fort Lafayette is in ISTew York Harbor, 
in the centre of the channel, surrounded by water, and having 
Forts Hamilton and Richmond on either side. The ground 
on which it stands is but slightly raised above the tidal Avave. 
To make a solitl foundation for the second tier of ordnance, 
it was necessary to throw up heavy arches. The rooms under 
these arches are called casemates. They are about twentj^-one 
feet long by thirteen wide at the base, and of sufficient 
height, in the centre of the arch, to permit a man to stand 
erect. A door and grated window open into the court or 
centre of the Fort. At the other end, two small port-holes, 
heavily and doubly grated, look seaward. From their con- 
struction and want of ventilation, surrounded as they are by 
the thick stone walls of the Fort, where daylight scarcely 
enters, they are exceedingly damp. On first entering them, 
the prisoner was sickened by the peculiarly disagreeable 
smell. The atmosphere was so damp that, in twenty-four 
hours,. a green mould would settle upon a leather trunk, so 
thick, the prisoners could write their names legibly on it with 
their fingers. Such were the quarters in which human beings 
were crowded for months and years. 

This is a truthful, but feeble picture of an American 
Bastile,- under the Administration of Abraham Lincoln, in 
1861-2-3-4. 

Mr. Johnson, believing that some imposition had been 
practised on the President, in consideration of his long ac- 
quaintance, intimacy, and friendship with him, wrote the 
following letter : 

"Fort Lafayette, September 7, 1862. 
"President Lincoln: 

"Jf^ Bear Sir: — You will no doubt be as much surprised to find 
me here, as I am to be here, by order of the Secretary of "War. I 
need hardly say to you, the Government has been imposed upon, 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. . 519 

as I solemnly declare to you I have never in word, thought, or act 
done a disloyal thing to my country. I therefore request that you 
will order your Judge Advocate to examine into my case with as 
little delay as the public interest may require. Holding myself 
I'eady to answer for every act of my life, I am, sir, 
" Yours truly, 

(Signed) M. Y. Johnson." 

Indorsed, "Private.") 

From the cliaracter of the letter, it will be seen, I^fr. John- 
son had no suspicion that Mr. Lincoln was the instigator of 
his arrest. The letter is an open, frank appeal, such as an 
honest man would make. But the result was far different 
from what might have been expected. It was k;iown to Mr. 
Lincoln then, that there had never been any charges filed 
against Mr. Johnson. Instead of giving an order for his dis- 
charge, Mr. Johnson, in two or three days afterward, received 
a visit from the Judge Advocate, and, from what transpired, 
no doubt can be entertained but that he would have been 
discharged, had he submitted to certain terms and conditions. 
It will be remembered, at that time, as a condition of release, 
the Administration imposed, in addition to the oath of loyalty, 
a condition that the prisoner would not seek any redress, by 
suit or otherwise, for the injuries committed. Mr. Johnson 
was not the man to tamely submit to an outrage, and volun- 
tarily exculpate the perpetrators. 

When the Judge Advocate, L. C. Turner, appeared at the 
Fort, he was accompanied by his Secretary, who noted down 
the admissions of the prisoners. The Commandant of Fort 
Hamilton, and the officers of Fort Lafayette, in full uniform, 
were present as witnesses. A file of soldiers was stationed 
in the anteroom. Several prisoners were examined ; among 
them, Mr. Johnson, who. was received by the Judge Advocate 
with great politeness and suavity of manner, and quickly 
engaged in conversation, with the intention of throwing him 
off his guard, securing his confidence, and hoping, before his 
suspicions were aroused, he might drop some expression that 
could be tortured into evidence ao-ainst him. This was the 



520 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

ranniier of acting toward all the prisoners. In this case, it 
failed. The Judge Advocate blandly inquired, "Do you 
know with what you are charged ? " 

Mr. Johnson. "Xo, sir, I do not." 

Judge Advocate. "Are yon not Yankee enough to guess? " 

Mr. J. "I have not a drop of Yankee blood in me, sir, 
and no disposition to guess. If there are any charges against 
me, I desire to know what they are, and who are my accusers. 
I stand ready to defend any and every act of my life." 

J. A. "Mr. Johnson, did you bring a suit against Eradner 
^m'lth 1 " 

}t[R. J. "I did, Init I had too much confidence in the 

Government to believe that it woukl interfere, and make the 

• .... 

professional act of a lawyer, in bringing a suit between two 

private individuals, a pretext for an arrest." 

The Judge Advocate then requested a statement of the 
facts. Having nothing to disguise, Mr. Johnson briefly re- 
ca[)itulated the facts, which the Judge Advocate said were 
entirely satisfactory to him. Mr. Johnson, feeling satisfied 
that whatever the pretext might be, his arrest had been 
caused by E. B. Washburne, inquired of the Judge Advocate 
if such were the fact. He gave an ambiguous reply, and 
said, "I do not know that AVashburne was in Washington 
when your arrest was ordered by the Secretary of War." 
He then continued, "I will ask you a question: you need not 
answer it, if 3'ou do not choose. Do you belong to a secret 
society called the Knights of the Golden Circle? " 

Mr. J. " I do not belong to that or any other secret 
society, except the Masonic fraternity." 

After some further diplomacy and professions of friendship, 
he asked Mr. Johnson : "Are you willing to take the oath of 
a loyal man ? " 

Mr. J. "I have taken it frequently as a lawyer, and 
luivc. never yet violated it. I have not the slightest ob- 
jection to taking any oath the law imposes on the citizens 
of my State ; l)ut I will take no oath that may be prescribed 
by any official, intended, by implication, to impeach my in- 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 521 

tegrity as a man, and cast a doubt on my loyalty to the Con- 
stitatlon of my country." 

J. A. " If you are a loyal man, you cannot object to 
taking an oatli to support the Constitution." 

Mr. J. "I Lave no objection to the oath itself; but my 
taking it would be construed into an adnnssion that I have 
been guilty of some crime or offence. I would not purchase 
my freedom at the expense of my honor and manhood." 

At this point tlie farce ended, so 'far as the examination 
was concerned ; but not its consequences. On the report of 
the Judge Advocate to the authorities at Washington, it 
appeared that the 'prisoner was not subdued cither in spirit or 
temper, and was unfit to he released. 

A short time after the above interview with the Judge 
Advocate, au order was sent from Washington, to remove 
him from Fort Lafayette to Fort Delaware, on the ground 
that he was contumacious, and demoralizing the prisoners in 
the Fort. lie had refused their unconstitutional oaths, and 
dared to maintain his manhood. This was demoralization. 
They had failed to impose terms, and he was to be further 
outraged. With the same mystery that controlled all these 
illegal proceedings, the prisoner was taken to the office, and, 
without any intimation that he Avas to be removed, was 
handed over to those appointed to take charge of him. He 
was receipted for, as though he were dead property, ^o in- 
timation could be obtained, either from the officer of the 
Fort or those taking charge of him, as to where he was to be 
removed, or what was to be done with him. Finding that he 
was to leave the Fort, he asked permission to bid farewell to 
his comrades in misfortune, and to see a fellow-prisoner, to 
whom he wished to give some money. Permission mas given 
to leave the money, hut he vxis refused, an interview. 

He was taken from the Fort, and conveyed to the House 
of Detention in j^ew York city, and there thrust into an 
apartment among bounty-jumpers, negroes, and thieves. 
Here he had his option of remaining in this place, which was 
about five feet in width and nine in length, or of enjoying 



522 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the liberties of the yard in common with otlier prisoners. 
The yard consisted of an open space, forty feet in width by 
one hundred in depth, surrounded by a brick wall thirty 
feet high. Unpleasant as the associations and surroundings 
were, it was a change from the dull monotony of fhe Fort, 
and was, for a time, some relief to his nnnd. 

But here he was unfortunate in making himself an 
object of suspicion. Falling in with one of the principal 
officers of the " institution," he inquired " if the jurisdiction 
of the Courts of NeiD York were as powerless there as in Fort 
Lafayette." The very question seemed to raise in the officer's 
mind the writ of habeas corjyus, civil and criminal prosecu- 
tion, etc. Mr. Johnson w\as at once excluded from all com- 
munication ; aiid soon an order came, by telegraph, from 
"Washington, to remove him to Fort Delaware. With the 
order, came an admonition to the officer that the prisoner 
was a ^'■desperate character, and had better be ironed.''' When 
the order was communicated to liim, every feeling of man- 
hood was aroused. Turning to the officer, he said: '•'' I may 
he further outrageA, as I have no power to resist — that is the act 
of others ; hut to he humiliated by them would he my own act, and 
it never shcdl he done." The officer was impressed with his 
manner. He believed the order to be dictated by malignity, 
and unnecessary; therefore neglected to put Mr. Stanton's 
jewelry on him, and the transfer was safely made without. 
On reaching Fort Delaware, he was placed under Major 
Henry S. Burton, a regular army officer, then commander of 
the Fort. It is but a just tribute to his humanity, as well 
as to his honorable conduct, to say the prisoners were relieved 
from all petty tyranny, and treated with as much considera- 
tion and kindness as his position under the circumstances, 
and the nature of the service demanded of him, would admit. 
On the 28th of October, not being released, jNfr. Johnson 
again addressed the President. AYe copy the letter from the 
" Congressional Globe," p. 664, 1st part, 3d scss. 37th Con- 
gress, as contained in his memorial to Congress. It is a bold, 
manly letter, and speaks for itself: 



MADISON Y. JOHNSOJT. 523 

" Fort Delaware, October 28, 1862. 
"Sir: I addressed a letter to you on the 7tli of September, 
from Fort Lafayette, informing you of my arrest at Galena, on 
a telegraphic despatch from the Secretary of Wax-. I was at 
once transported beyond the jurisdiction of my State, and after 
being detained in Fort Lafayette some sixteen days, I was re- 
moved to this place. I have been detained here ever since, and, 
strange to say, up to this day I have no knowledge of what offence 
I am charged with, or who is my accuser. I solemnly declare 
to you, I have never by word, thought, or act done a disloyal 
thing to my country. The Grovernment has been imposed upon 
by the machinations of private malice, through the representation 
of a dishonorable member of Congi*ess, (as I am induced to believe, 
from the facts within my knowledge.) I have patiently endured 
all these things, hoping my Government Avould inquire into my 
case and vindicate me. I have addressed communications to the 
Judge Advocate, General Wool, and the Secretary of \Yar, respec- 
tively, as I was advised at the time I was under each of their 
jurisdictions, neither of whom have condescended to answer. I 
now appeal to you, as the head of the nation, whose duty it is 
to see that personal liberty is protected, to interpose in my behalf. 
If I am charged with an offence, let me be informed of it, that I 
can vindicate myself. If I am not, then, in the name of common 
justice, do not punish me. It cannot be the object of the Gov- 
ernment to punish those who are not guilty of an offence. From 
your acquaintance with me and Mr. Washburne for the last 
eighteen j-ears, you should be able to determine, with some accu- 
racy, whether I am guilty of an offence against my country, or, 
taking advantage of the peculiar times, he has availed himself of 
his position to carry out petty malice. In either event it is due 
to me, the Government, and yourself, that I either be tried or 
discharged. You, as well as myself, know that the personal lib- 
erty of the citizen is of more importance to the country than all 
other rights, and without which all others are valueless. Under 
these circumstances, believing you should have no other object 
in view than to see the law duly administered and individual 
liberty protected, I am induced, as a matter of justice to myself, 
to ask 3'our interposition, holding myself ready to answer for 
every act of my life. 

" Under these circumstances, with a knowledge that the Gov- 



524 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ernment lias been imposed upon, and it being both yonr duty, as 
it should be youi* pleasure, to protect her citizens, I cannot doubt, 
when your attention is called to my case, you will take action in 
the premises. M}^ detention can effect no good to the Govern- 
ment, and does me an absolute injury. In no view can m}^ further 
detention be justified. 

"Hoj)ing soon to be discharged, I am 

Eespectfull}' yours, 
(Signed) M. Y. Johnson. 

" To His Excellency President Lincoln." 

This, like liis former letters, brought no reply. Witli a 
full knowledge of the facts, what can be said, after reading 
the above letter, in favor of ]\Ir. Lincoln's honest}^ his hu- 
manity, or his sense of justice. His revolutionary partisans 
may seek to excuse his conduct, but they forget be was a 
sworn officer. The excuse rendered convicts him of a greater 
crime against the Constitution than the outrage complained 
of. He w^as sworn " to faithfully execute the office of President, 
and to the best of his ability to preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution." Is not personal liberty secured under that 
oatb? In the Preamble to the Constitution, it is declared to 
be the" object to " establisb justice," and " secure the blessings 
of liberty ; " and, to put tlie matter beyond all cavil and dis- 
pute, it prohibits the arrest of a party without oath and w^ar- 
rant, or removing him beyond the State. If JNIr. Lincoln 
had believed Mr. Johnson guilty of an offence, he committed 
a greater crime, as the trusted Executive to execute the laws, 
as he violated that law when he ordered the arrest and 
imprisonment. Mr. Raymond, his apologist and historian, 
in speaking of these arbitrary arrests, saj^s : " They have not 
been made for punishment, as there has not been an indict- 
ment or a trial in a single case, or any punishment whatever, 
beyond what w^as purely incidental," etc. (Page 354.) 

"What, we inquire, were they made for? His friends may 
urge that he acted on a " suj^posed necessity" to preserve the 
Government. This is the only reason that can be assigned. 
From whence came this law of necessity ? Who ordained 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 525 

it? Who are its expositors? "Who is commissioned to ad- 
minister it ? Is of. the President. He is sworn to support the 
Constitution of the United States. That to him is declared 
to he the supreme law of the land. This doctrine of necessity 
is the old plea of tyrants, and, whenever submitted to, over- 
throws free institutions. To say the Administration may 
make arrests without regard to law, is wholly fallacious. 
It is a despotism tainted with the odium that justly attaclies 
itself to the French monarchy, when ^'- Lcttres de Cachet"" 
were the instruments of consigning the victim to a dungeon. 
The ukase of Russia's Czar exiles the sulyect to Siberia — the 
order of the Sultan of Turkey consigns the object of his dis- 
pleasure to the Bosphorus — and the President, on his plea of 
necessity, opens his American Bastiles to receive his victims. 

During all the time of his imprisonment, Mr. Johnson's 
friends were active in their eftbrts to secure his release or 
hasten his trial. The Executive of the State of Illinois was 
appealed to, and made a feeble requisition on the Administra- 
tion to have him returned to the Sate for trial. But he was 
not charged with an offence ; therefore there was nothing to 
try. Petitions and remonstrances had been signed, and sent to 
Mr. Lincoln, asking his discharge. The Democratic members 
of Congress of the State had joined in a request demanding 
his trial or release. The City Council had taken action and 
petitioned the President for his release ; a volunteer company 
starting for the war had "petitioned the Secretary of War 
to discharge him. Mr. Johnson himself had memorialized 
Congress for an investigation and relief, on the ground that 
the Executive would not, and the Court could not protect 
personal liberty. 

The Administration resisted all these influences, and held 
on to the prisoner, with a full knowledge that he was not 
only not guilty of any offence, but was not charged with one. 
"What was perhaps a mistake on their part in making the 
arrest, became a crime ; and to protect themselves from the 
consequence of their violations of law, it became necessary 
that some excuse cr justification should be found. They 



526 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

had arbitrarily invaded a sovereign State, seized and trans-* 
ported one of her citizens a distance of a thousand miles, and 
imprisoned him without any of the forms of law. Their at- 
tempt to impose terms and unconstitutional oaths, that could 
he construed to his injury, had failed. To shield themselves 
and give some color of excuse for their conduct, they called to 
their aid their Provost Marshals, spies, and detectives, who, by 
ex-parte examinations of Mr. Johnson's servants and those that 
had been in his employ, endeavored to find out something on 
which to base a charge. But this experiment failed. Perjury 
was not as cheap then as afterward. The Department had 
not discovered Connover. The Bureau of Military Justice, 
with Judge Holt at its head, had not then been organized. 
Stanton had not yet ordered Military Commissions, " organ- 
ized to convict." Things w^ere becoming desperate. All 
confidence in the personal security of the citizen was being 
undermined. The country became alarmed at the arbitrary 
acts of the Administration, and began to speak out. The 
great State of New York had gone Democratic, and elected 
Horatio Seymour Governor. Illegal arrests were becoming 
unpopular. Mr. Johnson's friends had quartered themselves 
in Washington, and were paying daily visits to Mr. Lincoln 
and the Secretary of War. A Democratic Legislature for 
the State of Illinois was soon to convene, and it was vaguely 
hinted that it might take some action prejudicial to the 
policy of the Administration. At this juncture, Mr. Hun- 
kins, a friend of Mr. Johnson, again called on Mr. Lincoln to 
urge his release. In conversation, the President said, " Mr. 
Johnson has given us more trouble than all the political 
prisoners. He is stubborn, but you must see Stanton." Stan- 
ton Avas seen, and said he would be discharged in a day or 
two, under a general order. The general order was issued 
and published, (order of 26tli of !N"ovember, 1862,) but it 
brought no release; for when it was published, the Secretary 
of War telegraphed to the Commander of the Fort to disre- 
gard the general order in his case, and to hold him subject 
to " special orders." At the same time, in his official report^ 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON, 527 

•he informs Congress tliat all the political prisoners were dis~ 
charged. Such deceit and hypocrisy on his part were but 
ehort- lived. In less than ten days his duplicity was dis- 
covered, which served only to alarm Mr. Johtison's friends, 
who, now beginning to fear foul play, became more clamorous 
for his release. 

Mr. Hunkins, believing "VVashburne was the obstacle in the 
way of his release, approached a friend of his that he knew 
Avould carry all he said to Washburne, and told him that he 
had just heard from home, that there was terrible excitement 
there, that Johnson and Sheean's friends believed that he 
(Washburne) was the cause of their not being released, and 
that his (Washburne's) personal safety depended on their being 
disch'aro-ed at once. This had the desired effect. In less than 
an hour, AVashburne hunted up Mr. Iljmkins, and learning 
from him it was the general feeling that they were held at 
his instance, Washburne said he would do anything he could, 
and asked, " "What can I do ? " Hunkins said, write a letter 
to the Secretary of War requesting their release, and it will 
be done at once. He then invited Mr. Hunkins to his room, 
when he said to him, " I^o, I cannot write it, but you write 
it, and I will see the Secretary, and it will do just as well." 
Seeing his fears were operating on him, and desiring to com- 
mit him beyond retraction, Hunkins said, " I do not know 
how to address these officials. You write it, and I will sign it, 
and take it to the Secretary of War." Washburne sat down 
and wrote the letter, asking their immediate discharge. Mr. 
Hunkins signed, and delivered it to Stanton, sa3'ing to him, 
" Mr. Washburne will call in reference to the subject." Stan- 
ton then asked him if he could not see his friends and induce 
tliem to take the oath. Mr. Hunkins replied, " It is no use 
to offer it. I knou- the men ; they idll die first." Shortly after 
he left the office, Washburne entered. In about an hour, Mr. 
Hunkins called again, and on entering the office, Stanton 
turned to him, remarking, "The order has been sent — your 
friends are discharged." A simple recital of the facts is all 
that is necessary to show there was a conspirac}- on the part 



528 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ot' those in nnlLority to outrage and destroy ]\rr. Johnson;* 
and it only failed through his firmness and the persistent 
eihn-ts of liis friends, after sonic four niontlis' imprisonment. 
AVe ask the apologists of Mr. ]Jneoln and his Admiiiisira- 
tion, how they can palliate or cxeusc sueh conduct, or recon- 
cile it either with lionor or private or public integrity. jSTcither 
Mr. Lincoln nor his Secretarj'of AVar were in any senBe Judi- 
cial officers. The}- bad no legal authority to order tbe arrest 
of any one, either witb or without tlie forms of law. The 
State of Illinois was not in rebellion. The courts were open 
for the ]~iunishment of crime. It was a wanton violation of 
dut}', for which any monarch of Europe would have lost his 
head. AVe might as well undertake to justify the assassina- 
tion by Booth as t*^ defend the acts of usurpation and tyranny 
of the Lincohi Administratio'ii. It passed beyond the control 
of all laws, tribunals, and constitutions, and grasped at arbi- 
trary power. If he would not credit the letters of Mr. 
Johnson, the e::vamination of his Judge Advocate, the peti- 
tions of the people, the demand of the City Councils, the 
remonstrance of the members of Congress, the requisition of 
the Governor of the State, witb the fact that no charge could 
be based on the ex-parte examinations of his Provost ^Marshals, 
spies, and detectives, how, we inquire, could his sense of jus- 
tice be reached ? 

Ilii^tory, in commenting on his acts of usurpation and 
tyrann}', will tear off the veil of " Honest Old Abe," and place 
him as a bad man side by side with Louis XI. and Lucretia 
Borgia, possessing their malignity, without their virtue or 
courage. 

"When the order came for !Mr. Johnson's discharge, and he 
was told he was free, liberty itself was not a boon that was 
to be accepted without placing himself in a position to be 
vindicated, knowing that an Administratiou that had wan- 
tonly violated the rights of the citizen, would not stop at 
the act of destroying the records of his incarceration. He 
determined to carry with him evidence of their guilt. How 
to get it was the question. Mr. Jolinson was not long in 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 529 

devising a plan to obtain wliat he wanted. He insisted he 
might be rearrested, unless he had a written discharge, reca- 
pitulating all the facts of his arrest, removal, detention, and 
discharge, with certified copies of Stanton's orders. Kot 
thinking they were furnishing the only link not in their 
power to destroy, connecting them with the outrage, they gave 
Mr. J. the desired certificate of discharge. Armed with this, 
well might Lincoln exclaim, "He has given us more trouble 
than all the political prisoners." If his departure from home 
was in mystery and silence, his return was in enthusiasm 
and jo}^ 

We copy from the daily " Democrat," of December 24, 
1862, his return home : 

" The progress of M. Y. Johnson and David Sheean from the 
EepubHcan Bastiles toward their homes in Galena, was such as 
could not fail to be highly gratifying to them, and not less so to 
their thousands of sj^mpathizing friends. At Chicago they were 
honored by an extemporaneous ovation, which demonstrated the 
fact that the petty tyranny of the liepublican rulers was justly 

repudiated At Freeport, the enthusiasm of the people 

burst forth in a way to convince all but the wilfully blind that 
arbitrary arrests in Illinois had ended, and that, despite all the 
endeavors on the part of the Union haters to perpetuate the 
reign of terror, the people were sternly demanding the right to 
think, to speak, and to act in accordance with their own cherished 
convictions. 

" At Scale's Mound and Council Hill, similar and equally enthu- 
siastic demonstrations were made, but it remained for the Dem- 
ocrats of Jo Daviess County to crown the glory of this most mag- 
nificent expression of public joy in Galena, where the 'honorably 
discharged' and now triumphant victims of lawless oppression 
were best known and most justly appreciated. A dozen bonfires 
crowned the high places by which the cit}^ is surrountled. The 
murky darkness of the night was dispelled b}* numberless rock- 
ets, and the city was adorned by a brilliant illumination and 
beautiful transparencies. At the depot, thousands were in 'vait- 
ing to welcome to their homes the now 'honorably discharged* 
victims of lawless power; and on the arrival of the train which 
34 



530 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

brought Messrs. Johnson and Sheean from Chicago, shout after 
shout and cheer after cheer went up in testimony of the joy that 
was felt by every heart, while the verj- heavens were lit up by 
the grand display of fireworks and innumerable torches borne 
by the joj^ful and deeply excited crowd. A short but eloquent 
speech of welcome was delivered by Mr. Shissler, at the house of 
Mr. Johnson, which was feelingly responded to by Mr. Johnson 
and Mr. Sheean. They were then escorted through the princi- 
pal streets to the City Hall. On the arrival of the procession 
the display of fireworks was magnificent beyond description, and 
the exultant cheers of the multitude were sufiiciently powerful 
to ' create a soul under the ribs of death.' Here the large assem- 
bly was addressed by Messrs. Johnson, Sheean, Mahony, Richards, 
Samuels, Hutchins, and Baggs, after which the crowd dispersed. 

"The speech of Mr. Shissler was able and eloquent. He said : 
' Madison Y. Johnson and David Sheean : It is my hapi)y duty, in 
behalf of the people, to express their heartfelt joy in greeting 
you on your return from a cruel, tyrannical imprisonment. To- 
night, the public heart, kindled with wild delight, extends to you 
a warm, enthusiastic welcome. You are welcome because yon 
have stood up like noble and heroic men when the rights and 
liberties of American citizens here have been outraged and 
trampled down. Your prompt, decided, and energetic action in 
opjiosing this mad spirit of Abolition fanaticism, which threat- 
ened to destroy every expression of constitutional liberty in our 
midst, caused you to become the shining mark for Government 
spies and official assassins. When you were dragged away and 
imprisoned in Abolition Bastiles, as the Constitution was violated 
in the pei'son of one of you, it was violated as to all citizens. 
Your cause then became the people's cause. When you suffered 
a long and painful imprisonment, it was in support of our com- 
mon rights under the Constitution.' 

" He concluded his eloquent address as follows : ' In all ages, 
men who have dared to oppose a tyrant's mandate, have been 
called disloyal. The ancient Eastern king had his furnace of fire 
in which to destroy all men who would not obey the fiat of 
arbitrary Executive power. Our king has his Bastiles in which 
to imprison all citizens who proclaim their adherence to the Con- 
stitution and laws. And, as the furnace of lire has caused that 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 531 

ancient king to be remembered only for his crimes, wickedness, 
and foil}', so the Bastiles of this country will perpetuate the 
ignomin}" and disgrace of our king down to the latest genera- 
tions. Sirs, you have passed through a more than fierj^ ordeal, 
but you have come out crowned with the laurel-iDreath of victory , 
with your character unstained, your honor unsullied, and your 
manhood untarnished. In addition to the outrages suffered by 
3'ou, these usurpers and sati-aps endeavored to impose conditions 
which would have brought shame and dishonor upon you. But 
you displayed a calm courage, an unbending integrity, a manly 
heroism, which can never be forgotten, and which, while it serves 
as an example, to excite our admiration and challenge imitation, 
it will also exist as a memorial of tyranny, and perpetuate the 
infamy of the present Administration. All hail, noble compa- 
triots; welcome, thrice welcome, once more, to your homes.' 

" Response of Mr. Johnson : ' Mr. Speaker, and you, my friends 
and fellow-citizens: I have no language that can express to you 
my feelings at so grand and triumphant a reception as meets our 
view on this occasion ; neither have I the vanity to believe, that 
any personal popularit}^ of Mr. Sheean or myself could have 
induced the multitude that I see before me, to subject themselves 
to the inconvenience of both rain and mud to be present. But 
let me attribute it to the real cause : that you are here to testify 
your approbation of our course, and vindicate constitutional lib- 
erty and personal security, as the same has been struck down in 
our persons. 

" "Near four months ago, by the arbitrary and despotic acts of 
one of the chief clerks of the present Administration, without 
authority, or any of the forms of law, but in palpable violation 
of the Constitution of the United States and this State, two of 
your citizens were kidnapped, one in the very presence of the 
Court, and with his knowledge, if not his approbation, and trans- 
ported beyond the State some twelve hundred miles, and incarce- 
rated in a Military Bastile, Avhere it is a crime in the estimation 
of this Administration to attempt to avail 3'ourself of the protec- 
tion of the laws of j^our countr}" to get a hearing before any tri- 
bunal known to the law. Such, however, my friends, is the 
enormity of the outrages this beneficent Administration is daily 
perpetrating on American citizens, that it would shame an Aus- 
trian despotism when its venality and tyranny are exposed. I 



532 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

was arrested bj' order of the Secretary of War, on a telegraphic 
despatch, while engaged in the defence of a murder case, and 
have been transported across a half-dozen free States, confined in 
two Military Forts of the United States, and also in the House of 
Detention in New York, under the care of that estimable pro- 
tector of female character, the Kennedy of Mrs. Brinsmade noto- 
riety; and .during all this time, T have assiduously tried to find 
out what 1 was charged with, or who was my accuser, by 
repeated applications of myself and my friends, to the President, 
the Seeretarj^ of War, the Judge Advocate, and every military 
commander in whose charge I have been placed; and to-day, 
after nearly four months' imprisonment, I am turned out, without 
any information as to who was my accuser, or what oflFence I 
was charged with, notwithstanding I ofiered to submit myself to 
trial before any tribunal they might appoint, either civil or mili- 
tary, or a di'um-head court-martial, and to defend every act of 
my life against the laws of my country, 

"'Such is a part of the usurpation and tyranny that are prac- 
tised by this fanatical Administration on free American citizens, 
I want to call their attention to a portion of French history; it 
may be suggestive to them of an episode in the management of 
the Bastiles in America. It is said when the heads of Eobes- 
pierre, Danton, and Marat, and the chief actors in the reign of 
terror, came to the guillotine, or were laid low by the poniard, 
the Bastiles were opened, and the people regained some of the 
liberties they had lost. I have no time to teach history; I can 
only allude to it in passing 

" ' In conclusion, I thank you again and again for this demon- 
stration in favor of civil liberty and personal security. We may 
now say the padlock is taken oif our mouths. The backbone of 
arbitrary arrests is broken ; civil and constitutional liberty once 
more proclaimed ; and may the infamous scoundrel be paralyzed 
when he seeks to introduce again a reign of terror or hold the 
rights and liberties of any of our citizens by despotic power. 
Any man, high or low, in oflSce or out of office, that would vio- 
late the Constitution on any pretext, or for any purpose, is a 
TRAITOR, not only to the laws of his countr}^, but to civil liberty, 
and will yet be brought to that just punishment he so richly 
merits.' " 



ADISOX Y. JOHNSON. 533 



ADDEIvTDUM. 

After Mr. Johnson's release, he commenced legal proceed- 
ings against J. Russel Jones, present Minister at the Court 
of Brussels, John Gr. Hawkins, 0. P. Hopkins, Bradner 
Smith, and E, B. Washburne, present Minister to France, 
who undertook to justify Mr, Johnson's arrest hy filing in 
the War Department /a^se affidavits as to his disloyalty. 

We have just received, as we are about to go to press, 
the result of the suit, which has terminated so signally in 
favor of Mr. Johnson, and also in favor of those personal 
rights once so sacred in the estimation of the American 
citizen. 

The defendants, on trial, set up not only the scurrilous and 
"unfounded matters previously urged in justification of Mr- 
Johnson's arrest, but also the two acts of Congress (see Appen- 
dix) legalizing all arrests made by the President's order ; and 
a " loyal " Circuit Court, releasing all causes of action and 
damages to the injured party, held, in effect, that no one 
arrested by President Lincoln's order, "had any rights that a 
loyal Court was bound to respect." The case was thence ap- 
pealed to the Supreme Court, where, in an able opinion, quite 
the reverse wiis held, and substantially as follows : 

That the President had no such powers as those exercised 
in this arrest, and that he and all those acting under his 
orders were trespassers. 

That, in his military capacity, his authority was restricted 
to the lines of the army. 

That he could not declare martial law, or suspend the writ 
of habeas corpus, except in districts where war actually ex- 
isted. 

That Congress had no power to pass legalizing acts in sup- 
port of the Executive assumption, and that they were con- 
sequently void. 

That such power, as claimed for the President and his 
subordinates, cannot safely be intrusted to any Government 



534 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

by a people claiming to be free. "Where it is only limited l)y 
liis discretion, it is an absolute despotism, and constitutional 
government merely a theory. 

Finally, after striking out all the defence, the Supreme Court 
sent the case back, to have the plaintiiF's damages assessed, when 
the following judgment was entered of record in the Court : 

"State of Illinois, Jo Daviess County. — Circuit Court, 
May Term, 1869. 

"Madison Y. Johnson m. J. Eussel Jones, John C. Hawkins, 
O. P. Hopkins, E. B. Washburne, and Bradner Smith. — Trespass 
for false imprisonment. 

" And now come the said defendants, Jones, Hawkins, and 
Hopkins, and admit that the said pleas heretofore filed by them 
in said case, and the matters and things therein set forth against 
said plaintiff, are untrue in substance and in fact ; and the defend- 
ants ask leave of the Court to withdraw the same, which is 
granted by the Court. And the said defendants further confess 
the wrongful trespass and imprisonment set forth in said declara- 
tion, and that the said defendants are guilty in manner and form 
as therein stated, and that said plaintiff has sustained great 
damage thereby; and said defendants further confess that the 
said seizure and imprisonment of said plaintiff was wrongful, 
unjustifiable, and without cause; and the said plaintiff was inno- 
cent of the violation of any law, or of doing any act inimical to 
the Grovernment of the United States; and that said plaintiff did 
no act, used no expression, or exercised any influence to the 
knowledge of these defendants, that was not in support of the 
Government, the Constitution, and the laws. 

"And inasmuch as said suit was brought by said plaintiff for 
a personal vindication of his character and conduct as a citizen, 
he releases the said damages, except as to the sum of one thou- 
sand dollars for costs and expenses incurred by said plaintiff 
on account of said wrongful seizure and imprisonment. It is 
thereupon considered by the Court, that the said plaintiff have 
and recover of and from the said defendants, Jones, Hawkins, 
and Hopkins, the said sum of one thousand dollars, and cost of 
suit, and that execution issue therefor. 

"Filed and entered of record May 24, 1869." 



MADISON Y. JOHNSON. 535 

Thus terminated tlie suit brought by Mr. Johnson. 

We venture to say there is not one case, among all the 
prisoners mentioned in this volume, which would not have 
ended the same way before any impartial court or jury. 

What must the Courts of France and Belgium think of 
our present national representatives, when this record of their 
deliberate infiimy and admitted shame is spread before them? 



GEORGE A. IIUBBELL, THE is^EWSBOl'. 

"KTEITHER age, sex, nor condition was free from tlie grasp 
-^^ of arbitrary power during the long night of political 
persecutions that enshrouded the land under the Administra- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln. The old man, tottering on the 
verge of the grave, and the lad not yet old enough to dis- 
criminate between right and wrong, alike felt the heavy 
liand of the oppressor, as they were rudely and ruthlessly 
snatched up ])y Government otlicials, and unceremoniously 
thrust into nauseous guard-houses or dismal casemates. The 
lady whose sense of honor and independence would not per- 
mit her to 

"Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, 
Where thrift may follow fawning ; " 

or she whose charity and humanity prompted her to minister 
to the wants of the dying, not in sympathy with the Ad- 
ministration ; and the humble Irishman, who could not be 
induced to turn informer on his neighbors, shared the same 
tate, and became the occupants of a felon's cell. 

George A. Ilubbell, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was in- 
carcerated in Fort Lafayette on the 20th of September, 1861. 
He Avas a small newsboy — a cripple — who made a scanty 
living by selling newspapers on the cars of the l!^augatuck 
Railroad. He was arrested as he was stepping on the train 
to make his daily journey. 

As no charge was preferred against him, and no authority 
shown for the commission of such an outrage, this poor little 
fellow, who had done no wrong, was bewildered with grief 
and astonishment at finding himself a prisoner, and on his 
way to Fort Lafayette. Nor does he yet know why he was 

63G 



GEOKGE A. HUBBELL. 537 

arrested, unless it was because, a short time before, he had 
been to JSTew York, and bought a few copies of the ISTew 
York "Daily News " — a paper which was obnoxious to the 
Administration, but which had not then been suppressed — 
and furnished them to his old customers on his daily route. 

He can imagine no other grounds for his arrest and im- 
prisonment, as he had not " spoken disrespectfully of 
President Lincoln" — had not "attempted to discourage 
enlistments" — had not said "it was unconstitutional for 
the President to call out 75,000 men without the consent 
OF Congress" — had not said "the war would be a failure" 
— nor had he " attempted to run the blockade." 

This poor, little, penniless, and, most likely, friendless 
cripple was confined in a damp casemate of the Fort until 
the 26th of September, when he was released. He was as 
much surprised at his release as he was at his arrest and im- 
prisonment. He was astonished at the magnanimity of the 
" Government " in discharging a prisoner so formidable, 
without first subjecting him to the inquisition of the Bureau 
OF Military Justice. 



WALTER S. HAWKES. 

WALTER S. HAWKES was born in Somersetshire County, 
^ ' England, and on the 2d day of December, 1826. He was 
educated in his father's office for the profession of a surveyor 
and civil engineer, and served in both capacities on railroads 
in Wales. 

He migrated to the United States in the fall of 1850, and 
for many years held positions on the Ohio Central, Cin- 
cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroads, and others. He 
has never taken an active part in politics, although he 
espoused Democratic principles, and has uniformly voted with 
that party. 

About two o'clock on the morning of the 22d of August, 
1862, he was arrested at his house in Tamaroa, a town on 
the Illinois Central Railroad, by a party of armed soldiers, 
and marched to the depot. There a special train was in 
waiting, under the charge of Major Board, of Ashley, Illi- 
nois, who had with him a guard of forty soldiers. 

At the depot he met his friends. Dr. Ross, Dr. W. E. 
Smith, Bedford Lurman, "William Haynes, and Rev. 0. H. 
IMcCarver, who had just arrived, and who were likewise 
under arrest. 

Major Board showed no authority for the arrests, but it is 
presumed that he was acting under orders of the Provost 
Marshal of the District. 

Mr. Hawkes has since learned the modus oj)erandi of these 
arrests. It appears that Zebedee P. Curlee, William Woods, 
and D. C. Barber, members of the Union League of Tamaroa, 
made a written statement, (the precise contents of which 
have not been made public,) hiring a fellow — a non-resident 
of the State, and wholly unknown at Tamaroa — to swear to 

538 



WALTER S. HAWKES. 539 

it under an assumed name, before Henry Clay, ITotary Public, 
who was also a member of the League. This paper was 
transmitted to Washington, and upon it, it is supposed, the 
order was issued to Provost Marshal Phillips, for the arrest 
of Mr. Ilawkes, and many citizens of his and the adjoining 
counties. Subsequently, the prisoner, Mr. Hawkes, saw the 
paper in the hands of Judge Advocate Turner, at his office 
in AVashington, D. C. 

He was taken directly to Washington City, and imprisoned 
in the " Old Capitol," where he remained for six weeks in 
close confinement, guarded, and furnished with very indif- 
ferent food. It was currently reported at that time that the 
inmates of the buildino- numbered four hundred. At the 
expiration of the above-stated time, Mr. Plawkes was released, 
without any charge having been preferred against him, or 
any trial granted him. 

The room in which he was confined contained eio;hteen 
Illinois prisoners, six of whom were from his immediate 
neighborhood; the balance from adjoining counties, some of 
whom remained in prison for six months. 

Mr. Ilawkes is now residing at Dubois Post Office, on the 
Illinois Central Railroad. 



REV. HENRY M. PAYNTER. 

rpiIERE are some features in the sufferings endured by 
-*- Rev. II. M. Paynter, of Booneville, Missouri, during liis 
imprisonment, which warrant a somewhat lengthened narra- 
tive. Descended from an ancient family, he inherited true 
love of country from a sire whose hlood was spilled in the 
Revolutionary War, and whose name has honorable renown. 

The blood of those who sufi'ered for righteousness' sake 
flows in his veins, his ancestors having been compelled to flee 
from France upon the Revocation of the Edict of ISTantes. 
After some years of pleasant and profitable labor in the min- 
istry at Vicksburg, he entered upon, as he supposed, his life- 
long labors at Booneville, Missouri. There, for seven years, 
had he cultivated the field assigned him by Providence; and 
his labors in the Lord's vineyard were greatly blessed to the 
good and growth of the Church. 

Beside the cultivation of his own field, his labors in differ- 
ent parts of the State were attended with the divine bless- 
ing. Fulton, Brunswick, Columbia, Lynn Creek, Glasgow, 
and Reth Counties witnessed manifestations of grace. Which 
greatly refreshed God's people, and largely added to the 
number of believers in the Lord. There was he employed 
when the war began. 

Although he sjaiipathized with the people in the Soutli, 
he opposed secession as both wrong and heretical ; teaching 
his people that it was the Christian's duty to be subject to 
the powers that be ; since it was not theirs to make or to 
unmake government ; but only to be faithful to Christ their 
King. His views were expressed in a discourse, preached 
January 4, 1861, and published at the request of his people, 
and which obtained a very wide circulation at the time. 

540 



KEY. HENRY M. PAYNTER. 541 

"When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, Mr. Paynter taught 
his people that it was their duty to give him that support 
and honor to which he was entitled as President of the 
United States. Both in his public ministrations and private 
work he enforced this dutj^ by his example. His Sabbath- 
day prayers for the President were strongly objected to by 
some of his people. Thereupon he delivered a lecture upon 
the duty of every Christian to give all due allegiance to 
whatsoever Government he was under, and whose protection 
he enjoyed. 

Whatever mio-ht be the relation of the seceded States to 
the General Government, Missouri had not, by any act of 
her people, renounced her allegiance ; and that consequently 
Christians in her borders should be peaceable, law-abiding 
citizens of the same. And the duty to remember in all pub- 
lic praj'ers the President of the United States, as the Presi- 
'dent, is plain from 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, and all similar passages. 
In fine, all Christians should be peaceable, law-abiding citi- 
zens, walking as Christ walked, and in nothing acting con- 
trary to deep and devoted loyalty to Christ their King. 

Th^ result was satisfactory. The church, though divided 
in sentiment politically, continued united, nor was any objec- 
tion subsequently made to the pastor's praying for the Presi- 
dent. At the same time he believed in the right of private 
judgment, and clung firmly to the cardinal truth, that 
" God alone is Lord of the conscience." Opposed to secession 
as disintegration and civil death, he yet could not become a 
partisan in the strife, .nor approve of all that was done in 
maintaining the Union. 

As pastor, he took no side, but labored for all. After 
Booneville was occupied by the Federal forces, he gave his 
labors cheerfully to the soldiers. He gave them an invitation 
to worship with his people. He visited them in their sick- 
ness ; they shared in his prayers for their good. As a minis- 
ter of Christ, he labored to promote their spiritual welfare, 
and from great numbers did he receive expressions of grati- 



542 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

tude for his interest in their welfare ; and when a prisoner, 
their uniform kindness was a grateful return. 

The following extract from a pamphlet published by Mr. 
Paynter during the war, explains very clearly his position at 
that time: "I close with my confession of political faith. I 
owe my Government allegiance, and cheerfully give it. But 
more, the sentiment of loyalty is deep and cherished. I love 
my country, my whole country. Opposed as I am to those 
measures which I believe are fraught with incalculable evil, 
I yet say, stand by, and sustain the flag, the emblem of our 
nationality and glory. Secession is disintegration, is political 
death. One flag, one destiny. The people should never con- 
sent to see one stripe erased, or one star blotted out, and my 
profound conviction is, they will not be ; but that we shall 
come out of this conflict a united people, a prosperous and 
powerful nation. May God hasten the time." 

Some time in August, 1861, he was very greatly surj^rised 
at seeing a squad of soldiers appi'oaching him with a written 
demand to bring his body forthwith to the commander. 
Upon reaching the encampment, this astonishment was in- 
creased at seeing five respectable citizens escorted with him- 
self into the presence of the commander. They were W. G. 
Burr, cashier of the bank ; H. M. Ells, a physician ; J. W. 
Draftin, a lawyer; E. D. Perry, a retired merchant, and J. 
"W. Harper, a druggist. The officer told them he had 7io 
charges against any of them, but that he expected to be at- 
tacked by the rebels, and must defend himself. He had ar- 
rested them as persons of great influence, whose sympathies 
w^ere with the South ; that he held them as hostages ; that 
if their friends desired to save their lives, they must find out 
where the enemy was, and keep him away ; for if an attack 
was made upon him, he would put his prisoners up as tar- 
gets, and if the conflict became severe, their lives should be 
the forfeit for the lives of his men. 

The statement astonished the prisoners, as they were pro- 
foundly ignorant of any movement of the enemy, their where- 
abouts, or their designs. A firm but respectful remonstrance 



REV. HENKY M. PAYNTER. 543 

was uselessly urged, and all were put iu prison to await the 
day of attack. 

Some days after, the six were all aroused about daylight, 
by the post commander, with the startling statement, "that 
the rebels had begun the attack, and that they must take 
their chances of life with his soldiers." They were marched 
within the intrenchments, and ordered into a tent. After 
the conflict had continued some time, and the rebels were 
preparing to carry the works by storm, by ba^'onet thrusts, 
accompanied by the most frightful cursing and oaths, the 
prisoners were ordered to mount the works and be shot by 
the advancing rebels ; or, " if their shots fail, we will shoot 
you ourselves," said the demoniacal captors. 

Ko altern'ative was left but to obey, although they believed 
they were going to certain death. 

Just before the works were charged, the commander pro- 
posed that if any of the prisoners would go out and dissuade 
the rebels from the charge, their lives should be spared. In 
the midst of a literal storm of balls. Win. G. Burr, the one 
selected by the commander, passed out into the ranks of the 
foe, and by his representations induced General Poindexter to 
recall the storming parties, and cease the conflict. The prize 
to be gained was the post, and large quantities of military 
stores ; and just as that prize was within his grasp, he gave 
up all, rather than sacrifice the six non-combatant men, whose 
lives would be the forfeit of his success. 

The firing having ceased, the commandant sent a paper, 
of which the following is an exact copy, to the commander 
of the opposing forces : 

" The secession forces agree herewith to withdraw from Boone- 
ville and vicinity, forthwith, two miles, not to renew any attack 
upon Union people, and forces of Booneville and vicinity. There 
are not more than seven men allowed to come to town at any 
time to procure their necessaiy supplies. The arms of the 
wounded and dead have to remain on the ground where they 
fell. For this consideration, the Union forces will agree to au 
armistice for the time of seven days, and release their hostages, 



544 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

with the exception of one, Mr. Pajnter, with the understanding 
that if these stipuhitions ai-e not carried out honestly, he will 
have to die forthwith. 

(Signed) Jos. A. Eppstein, 

Major Commanding. 
"Hostages on our side have to be released. 
" September 13, 1861." 

"The above is a true copy of an armistice signed by Major 
J. A. Eppstein. 

"Committee appointed by Major Eppstein, 

(Signed) Edmund Gray, 

George Yolrath." 

Two incorrect impressions rest upon the reader of thia 
paper. No attack was made upon any citizen nor any person 
arrested by the opposing forces. 

His fellow-prisoners were released, but Mr. Paynter was 
detained, and although every stipulation of the enemy was 
faithfully carried out, he did not obtain his liberty until after 
the fall of Lexington, Missouri, when he was, through the 
unsought but kind offices-of General Price, set free. Person- 
ally, Mr. Paynter was treated, by both officers and men, with 
kindness, so long as Major Eppstein retained command. But 
during part of the time of that imprisonment, a Colonel 
Worthington was in command, and he was made to feel the 
beginning of those sorrows he subsequently endured. 

On the first Sabbath morning after Colonel Worthington's 
arrival, Mr. Paynter was ordered into his presence, ques- 
tioned closely as to his thoughts and opinions, condemned 
for having so great an influence as he possessed, denounced 
for not taking an active part in putting the rebellion down, 
and then ordered back to his private tent. 

Just before leaving the presence of the Colonel, Mr. Paynter, 
who had no opportunity to cleanse his person during his im- 
prisonment, and who was then in no enviable plight, begged 
the privilege of a room for that purpose. "My men are just 
as good as you, and if you will not wash yourself before 



■REV. HENRY M. P A Y N T E R. 54-5 

them, you shall not wash at all/' was the officer's I'Qply. 
*' I do not deny your statement, hut not heing accustomed to 
that way of doing, I canuot accept your terms. Rather 
than expose my person to them, I will continue as I aiu. 
It is disgraceful to you ; it is no disgrace to me." "Then 
you can go back and rot in filth, for all I care." He was 
accordingly marched back to muse upon the law of kind- 
ness as exemplified in his case. 

But he was not always kept secluded. One day he was 
conducted into a tent, which was opened as wide as possible, 
and ordered to lie down. Presently solid files of soldiers were 
marched, in order, past the tent. Each file stopped, o-azcd, 
and railed at him. " Is that the G — d — secession preacher? 
D — him ! ' How I would like to shoot him ! How I would 
like to hang him as high as Haman!" and other similar ex- 
pressions. These gave way for others, and thus was he kept 
a gazing-stock for about the space of two hours. 

After his release, and until again arrested, Mr. Paynter 
discharged his duties as a minister of Christ, to the remnant 
of his people, who had not been scattered by the war, and 
to the soldiers who waited on his ministrations. Durino- 
this interval. General Halleck, then in command, issued an 
order requesting certain classes to come forward voluntarily, 
and show their fealty to the Government, by taking the sim- 
ple civil oath of allegiance, and thus exert their influence in 
assisting to restore quiet to the State. The following cer- 
tificate will show Mr. Paynter's position in the premises : 

" Provost Marshal's Office, 
Booneville, Missouri, March 5, 1862. 
" This is to certify that, H. M. Paynter, of Booneville, Cooper 
County, Missouri, has this day filed his oath of allegiance to the 
Government of the United States, at this office. 

(Signed) Joseph A. Eppstein, 

Provost Marshal." 
The Marshal, while handing this paper, remarked, " I am 
glad you have done this, , The whole power of the Federal 
Government is solemnly pledged for your protection. You 



546 AMERICAN EASTILE. 

need not heucefortli fear any molestation from our soldiers ; 
and all my power shall be used to protect you from any 
harm." He replied, "All the protection I ask is to be al- 
lowed to labor quietly in my calling." 

Shortly after this time, the arrest of citizens was an almost 
daily occurrence. The most frivolous pretences were given 
as reasons. One covered the whole ground — " military ne- 
cessity." Some were released soon after arrest. Others were 
kept for months, and at hard work. Some returned to their 
homes with diseases contracted in prison, from which they 
never recovered. Others never returned home alive. 

During those days, Mr. Payuter learned the value of the 
assurance that had been given him. He was made to feel 
the severities which he had witnessed — and in silence 
mounied over — as wrongs in themselves, and injuries to the 
cause of the Union. 

One Sabbath morning he was in his pulpit, preparing to 
begin public worship, when one of his elders stepped up to 
him and said : " The Federals are after you again." Recall- 
ing one very sad scene in which the preacher had been 
<lragged from liis pulpit, while engaged in public prayer, and 
determined to avoid a similar scene in his church, he left the 
]iulpit, and surrendered himself at the door. 

The Provost Marshal, when he was taken before him, 
remarked: "I arrest you to take the oath." "The oath 
you offer you have no right to require, and no man ought to 
take. I cannot take it. The civil oath of allegiance I have 
already taken." The officer, confounded at this rebuke, 
apologized, and let him go. 

The following Sabbath he was again arrested, and, without 
seeing any officer, was cast into prison. He was afterward 
ordered into the presence of the Provost Marshal, Captain 
llaverly, who arose to his feet in a towering passion, and 
began a most vehement tirade of abuse. " You are a traitor 
and a perjured villain. I am an infidel, but if I was as notori- 
ously bad as you are, I would not preach. " Thus he began, and 
thus continued in a similar strain, for perhaps five minutes. 



EEV. HENKY M. PAYNTER. 547 

The prisoner saw througli his motive, which was to arouse 
passion and excite to rash speaking, and kept silent. When 
he had finished, he said, " What say you to this ? " 

Prisoner. " You are not my church superior. My Pres- 
bytery decides upon my ministerial qualifications. To what- 
ever you may say, as a military ofiicer, I will listen ; because 
I am under your military authority." 

Provost Marshal. " I arrest you, to give bonds for 
$7,500." 

Prisoner. " That bond I cannot give. It is an outrage 
upon humanity. Have I disturbed the peace? Have I mo- 
lested any man's person or property ? . Have I lifted an arm 
or voice against the Government, or given aid or comfort to 
the enemy ? My manner of life is well known to all the peo- 
ple here, and they can testify concerning the same. You 
may imprison or hang me, as you threaten, for I am in your 
power ; but I will never give you that bond. I cannot vio- 
late my conscience. I may lose my life ; but I cannot con- 
sent to lose my manhood. If I fall, my hope is in Jesus, my 
King. Him I fear. His word I respect. His laws I love. 
And I fear not the face of man. I cannot, give you that 
bond." 

The Provost Marshal, enraged at this recital, exclaimed : 
'' Listen ! " Then arising from his seat, and pacing the room, 
angrily, he opened a drawer and drew forth a paper, which 
he read, and which was, as nearly as Mr. Paynter can recall, 
as follows : 

CHARGE OF TREASON. 

(A copy was refused the prisoner ; but being read three 
times in his hearing, the words were deej^ly impressed upon 
his memory.) 



" The United States 

vs. 
Rev. II. M. Paynter 



vs. y Charge — Treason. 



" Specification I'^f. That the said H. M. Paynter was heard 
to say, that he believed the Southern Confederacy would be 
successful, and he hoped it would be. 



548 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

'■'■ SjJecijication Id. That the said II. M. Pajnter was heard 
to read a newspaper, with evident satisfaction, to a crowd of 
secesh. 

" In addition to these there are," he said, "grave charges 
against you of smiling on hearing the news of rebel victories ; 
of reading the passages of Scripture to your people which incite 
to rebellion ; and generally, of not giving active co-operation 
and sympathy to the Union cause/ The weight of your influ- 
ence in this community is for neutrality ; not so much by what 
you say, as by what you do; not say^; and this cannot be 
allowed. You deserve to he hung ; and you shall be tried 
to-morrow morning for the capital charge, and if you get off 
with any less punishment than death, you will not get your 
deserts." 

Prisoner. "Admitting the allegations all to be true, no 
honest jury, under heaven, would convict a man upon such 
charges as those. But not one of them is true. I liave never 
said that I hoped the Southern Confederacy would be suc- 
cessful. I never have hoped it. The blood of the Revolu- 
tion flows in my veins. I never want to see this country rent 
in twain. To-day would I gladly give my life to save my 
country. I have firmly held, and uniformly stated, that 
secession was political death. I do not want to see the South- 
ern Confederacy successful. As to the second allegation, you 
know that no papers are allowed us, except such as military 
authority permits. I have never read a forbidden paper, and 
any treason I ma}^ have read has been such as the military 
authorities allowed. Except my religious paper, the only 
ones I have seen at all are the 'Democrat' and 'Republi- 
can,' of St. Louis. 

"The first and second general charges are totally untrue. 
As to the third, I have not taken an active part, and I will 
not. I am- a minister of Christ. I have stuck closely to my 
calling, and I mean to abide therein. Part of my people 
sympathize one way, part the other. I am pastor of both, 
and believe I have the respect and confidence of all. As I 
have done, so will I continue, preaching to all who will come, 



REV. HENKY M. PAYNTEE. 549 

and visiting and laboring, without any regard to the private 
opinions of those with whom I live, and for whom I toil." 

Then the prisoner asked, " Am I to be tried by a civil 
court ? " " iSTo," was the response, " arid you ought to be glad. 
The most impartial and lenient court is a military commission.^'' 
Mr. Paynter then said : " All I ask is an impartial trial. 
Let me confront the witnesses. Let justice be done me. 
If I be an offender, or have done anything worthy of death, let 
me die." "You shall have your trial to-morrow morning," 
retorted the officer, and the guard marched him back to 
prison. That trial he never had. Any investigation of his 
case that may have taken place was kept totally concealed 
from him. lie was imprisoned, and ultimately banished, 
without any other interview with those in command, except 
once, to hear his order of banishment read to him. 

Before leaving the Marshal's office, he obtained permission 
to have daily worship with his fellow-prisoners. On the 
Sunday following, that permission was z'ecalled, and never 
after renewed. As the prisoners were coming from breakfast 
one morning, one of them remarked to Mr. Paynter: " We 
are not to have any more prayers." "Why not?" said he. 
" Such are the orders, as I have just now been told by our 
guard," pointing to the corporal on duty. 

" I have received no such orders." 

"No, nor will you. This is the way the praying is to be 
stopped. The soldiers are to surround the prison, and sing 
vulo'ar sonffs until it is time for us to lie down." 

Strange as this statement may sound, it was verified. 
Night after night the prisoners were sickened by the vulgar 
and licentious songs, which completely destroyed all opportu- 
nity for worship. 

The prison was a frame building — nothing but boards on 
the sides, and the roof above. The windows had bars, but 
no glass. There were no seats but boards. Hay constituted 
the beds. The place was filthy and forbidding. The daily 
fare was hardtack, flitch, and cofiee. 

Mr. Paynter says : " How entering a prison, as an inmate, 



550 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

chills one's frame ! How drearily time passes by ! How the 
bird that twitters is envied his freedom ! Yea, the very 
worm that crawls where it will. And as the time of rest ap- 
proaches, what longing for the friends and comforts of home !" 

We also copy, verbatim^ portions of his journal, as follows : 
"During the morning, I became acquainted with quite a 
number of the prisoners. I found them, like myself, citizens, 
arrested many of them on frivolous pretences. One of them 
had been many months here for the offence of giving a suit 
of clothes to a son of his who was a rebel. Another, a lad 
of about fifteen summers, is accused of being a spy, because 
he had looked through the fence at the encampment. He is 
the son of a plain farmer near town, who had never seen a 
body of soldiers. 

" !N"umbers are here because they will not take the military 
oath. All are despondent ; some are melancholy. The list- 
less apathy of prison life, united with daily hard work, tella 
upon the stoutest constitution. The conspicuous ball and 
chain are a gentle reminder of the way in which refractory 
spirits are dealt with. From the prisoners, I have received 
very painful recitals of cruelty, which make my heart feel 
for them more than for myself. I have spoken to as many 
of them as I can of the precious One ' who hears the sighing 
of the prisoner,' and pray for grace to be a blessing and com- 
fort to them during my sojourn here, which may be longer 
than I now suppose. In the evening, held worship with my 
fellow-prisoners ; and, having commended my family to His 
care who heareth the young ravens wliich cry, I lay down 
upon my pallet of hay." 

His diary thus continues : " In the morning, the golden 
hopes of yesterday — 'that I would receive a trial' — van- 
ished like a dream. Instead of being brought to a trial, I 
was ordered out to work. My first day's labor, from 7 a.m. 
to 6 P.M., was carrying rods to strengthen the fortifications. 
The rods were placed on boards, and the prisoners compelled 
to carry the load by putting their hands under the boards, 
causing great sufiering by the whole, weight being on the 



E E V. H E N K Y M. P A Y N T E R, 551 

fingers. We had daily experience of this, and other kinds 
of toil required. We cleaned out the cavalry stahles, chopped 
wood, threw up fortifications, cleaned up the ground, and 
were engaged in such other menial employments as the 
ofiicers required. One day, while we were working together, 
a fellow-prisoner. Judge Scott, remarked: 'Do you know 
that they require the prisoners to clean out the privies of the 
officers ? They ordered me, yesterday, .to do it, but I told 
them I would do no such thing — I would rather be shot.' 

" The day following, six of us were ordered out together, 
and taken to the Post Commander's quarters. Two were 
ordered to scrub out the kitchen ; another, with myself, was 
put to chopping wood. The soldiers told me to cut the wood 
a particular length. This I did, piling it up in regular order. 
About noon, a negro woman, superbly dressed, came out, and 
thanked me for ha vino; cut it of such uniform length. An- 
other prisoner, a respectable gentleman, was put to cleaning 
out the privy. The first cleansing not proving satisfactory, 
he was ordered to clean the place again. And I shall never 
forget the deep-drawn sigh he heaved upon his return to 
prison, as, with a most woebegone expression of countenance, 
he exclaimed: 'Well, these are tight papers.' His fellow- 
prisoners laughed heartily, and replied : ' Yes; these are tight 
papers.' 

" As a general thing, the soldiers were as kind as allowed 
to be. The officers we seldom saw, except at a distance, or 
when coming around to inspect our work. One day, worn 
out with labor, and sick, so that I could scarcely lift up the 
spade, (we were throwing up fortifications,) a guard re- 
marked : ' Put down your spade, and rest ; they have no 
right to make you work as they do.' Scarcely was I seated, 
nntil, with a bayonet thrust and an oath, he ordered me up. 
He saw an officer coming, and knew that he would be kept 
in the guard-house, if detected in such an act of mercy to a 
prisoner. 

" One day, my appetite for dinner was completely taken 
away by the statement to me of the guard, that the soldiers 



552 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Laci killed Dr. Main. He was a Scotcliman, an estimable 
man, and a member of my church. He had been taken from 
his home, under the plea of showing them the way ; his head 
was broken in, then his body hung up, then cast into the 
river. Kone of those who committed the deed were ever 
under arrest. 

" One day, I was taken before the commander for some 
reason ; and, while there, heard the following conversation 
between the Post Commander and a plain farmer who looked 
about sixt}' years old. 

" 'How shall I enroll you?' 

"'Asa Union man.' 

" ' What kind of a Union man are you ? ' 

" ' I am for the Union as it was, and for the Constitution 
as it is.' 

" ' D — n sucli an answer ; such men are the d — dest rebels. 
I enroll you as disloyal.' 

" ' I cannot help it ; such are my sentiments. I am a plain 
farmer, and a peaceable man. I love my whole country, and 
do not want to see it destroyed.' 

" ' All you can say does not afi'ect me. I regard you as a 
rebel, and shall enroll you as such.' 

"One day, while taking our midday rest, a soldier thrust a 
lad about sixteen years old into the room, saying, 'D — n you, 
sp3% you will soon be hung.' The poor fellow was terribly 
frightened. In a few days, by testimony of the strojigest 
kind, it Avas shown that he never had been twenty miles 
from home, and knew little about anything ; that he was 
an errand-boy, and was on an errand when arrested. But 
all was of no avail. His daily labor M^as worth more than 
his daily bread, and he was still in prison when I left. 

" The charge against one of the prisoners was treason, in that 
he had witnessed the engagement referred to in these pages. 
To look on and not help, was treason ; all his property was 
taken, and he only released upon giving bond for good be- 
liavior. The story of another prisoner is a sad one. After 
many weary weeks of hard work, he was ordered before the 



REV. HENEY M. PAYNTEK. 553 

Provost Marshal, the first time lie liad been before any of- 
ficer, when the following dialogue, as reported by himself, 
occurred : 

" ' Where are you from ? ' 

" 'I was born in Rhode Island.' 

" 'Have you taken any part in the war?' 

" ' I have not. I have not been two miles from home since 
the war began. ]My first care is my motherless children.' 

" 'Are you a Union man ? ' 

" ' I always have been a Union man until you arrested me. 
Your treatment has made me in favor of two Confederacies. 
"Why should I be torn from my home and children, and kept 
here at hard work? Your treatment has made me a rebel.' 

" This was enough : he was ordered back to prison and to 
hard work ; and from that time was known as the 'two Con- 
federacies man.' 

" One Saturday, I met a Mr. Reed, a highly respectable man, 
walking about the prison. Supposing he was seeking some 
one, I inquired, ' Mr. Reed, what has brought you here ? ' 

" 'I am a prisoner.' 

" ' A prisoner ! What have you done ? ' 

" ' IS'othing. This morning, a squad of soldiers came to my 
house, and read an order, requiring me to give up all my 
corn and hay, and to furnish teams to take them to head- 
quarters. When the wagons were loaded, I was ordered to 
furnish drivers : this I would not do, and they have brought 
me here.' 

"This gentleman, aged about eighty years, was not released 
until he had given bonds for $3,000 for good behavior in the 
future. 

"But why dwell upon the sickening scenes of prison life? 
The memory of those days makes me shudder. The unwrit- 
ten story of wrong and sufi:ering is more painful than the 
written one. Hard work, hard fare, hard beds, every move- 
ment directed by the bayonet ; no religious privileges allowed, 
except private prayer ; expos>/d to a violent death — these were 
the privations and wrongs of those dreary days. K^o trial 



554 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

guaranteed, no prospect of relief; nothing sustained me Lut 
an unfaltering trust in llini, ' wlio doetli all tilings well.' 
The end came in a manner to me the most unexpected. 
Taken one day into the presence of the Marshal, who, in- 
stead of mitigating, had studied to increase the rigors of my 
imprisonment, I was informed that I was to have no trial, 
that ni}' ease had been decided, and that a paper, which I 
was told to read, would tell me my late. 

" This paper, a copy of which I begged, but was denied, 
was an order of banishment to the northern part of Aroos- 
took County, in Maine, to that part which lies beyond the 
boundary of civilized life. 

" I had borne up lirmly during my imprisonment. Conscious 
of entire integrity, the only request I had ever made was 
permission to cleanse my person. But this blow unmannetl 
me, on account of my family. I did not know how I was to 
support them there ; nor did I believe they would survive 
the rigors of a single winter. I pleaded for them, but in 
vain. The unfeeling man replied, ' I do not care a d — n for 
your family ; you shall go.' Subsequently that order was 
revoked, and the following issued : 

"'Headquarters Missouri State Militia, 
Booneville, Cooper Count}", Missouri, August 25, 1862. 

Special Order, iSTo. 7. 

" 'Rev. Henry M. Paj-nter: In obedience to Special Order No. 3, 
issued to me by Frank J, White, Provost Marshal General, Cen- 
tral Division of Missouri ; and by order of Brigadier General 
Totten, commanding the Central District of the above said State, 
You are hereby ordered to leave the State of Missouri by the 
first da}^ of September, 1862, to take up your residence in the 
State of Massachusetts, there to remain during the present war 
between the rebels and the Government of the United States. 
You are further ordered not to re-enter the State of Missouri 
during said war, under penalty of being shot to death. 

(Signed) T. T. Crittenden, 

Commanding Post, Lt. Col. 7th Reg't of Cavalry, M. S. Vols. 



REV. HENRY M. P A Y N T E K. 555 

Copy of Special Order No. 3. 

" ' Office of the Provost Marshal General, 
Central Division of Missouri, 
Jefferson City, August 20, 1862. 
'"Rev. Henry M. Paynter, clergyman, a sympathizer with 
the traitors now in rebellion against the United States, will be 
released from confinement, upon giving his parole of honor to 
leave the State of Missouri ten (10) days after his release, and 
to take up his residence in some Northern State, to be selected 
by Lieut. -Colonel Crittenden, 7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, 
commanding at Booneville, Missouri. The said Paynter not to 
re-enter the State of Missouri during the war, upon the penalty 
of being shot to death. 

(Signed) Frank J. White, 

Provost Marshal General. 
" ' By order of Brig. General James Totten, 

Commanding Central District of Missouri. 

'"Attest: T. T. Crittenden, Commanding Post, Lt.-Col. 7th 
Reg't Cav. Mo. State Militia. 

" 'AH Federal troops, in the execution of the above special oi'der, 
are therefore commanded to pass the said Henry M. Paynter out 
of the State of Missouri into the State of Massachusetts, with 
his family, and all other articles necessary for his comfort during 
his absence. 

(Signed) T. T. Crittenden, 

Lt.-Col. 7th Peg't Cav. Mo. S. M., 
Commanding Post, Booneville, Cooper Co., Missouri.' 

" Finding that I must go, and that, to carry out the order, 
I must travel on the Sabbath-day, I requested the commander 
to allow me to rest on that day. He replied, 'The Govern- 
ment will be responsible for that; you must go.' 

"I was released from prison. How strange the sensations! 
How singular everything appears ! How difficult to accept 
the fact that the bayonet is not at your back, that the soldier 
does not bid you what to do ! Days elapse before the con- 
fusion of the new order of things disappears. Personal 
liberty ! AVhat a blessing ! only truly appreciated by those 
who have experienced the horrors of prison life. With a 



556 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

sad heart I left the home where so long we had lived, where 
children had cheered us by their presence, and desolated our 
hearts by their death ; and the people whom I loved so well, 
for whose good so long I have labored, whom, perhaps, I 
may never meet again on earth, and with w'hom I desire to 
leave my sleeping dust, when our Father calls me home. 
" At Tipton, I received the following pass : 

"'Provost Marshal's OrncE, 
Tipton, Missouri, August 27, 1862. 
'"Pass the bearer, Eev. H. Paynter, and family, to St. Louis, 
his business being ordered by the Government. 

(Signed) Geo. W. Wasiiburne, 

Provost Marshal.' 

"At St. Louis, I was handed the following pass : 

'"No. 6594. 

Office of the Provost Marshal General, 
St. Louis Division, 
St. Louis, Missouri, August 28, 1862. 
" ' Permission is given to Eev. H. M. Paynter, aged — years, to 
go to Massachusetts. 

(Signed) George E. Leighton. 

Provost Marshal General, St. Louis Division.' 

" Thence onw^ard to my place of banishment, called by a 
prominent Bostonian ' The Penal Colon}' of Massachusetts,' 
which, in the providence of God, I reached in safety. 

"The following letter, signed by every officer in my church, 
three of whom were Union men, explains itself: 

" ' BooNEViLLE, February 16, 186,8. 
^^ ^ Dear Brethren in Christ: The undersigned, officers of the First 
Presbyterian Church, Booneville, Missouri, having learned that 
our beloved, now exiled, pastor. Rev. Henry M. Paynter, is tem- 
porarily supplying your pulpit, would state that Brother Paj^n- 
ter has been pastor of this church for about seven years, during a 
great portion of which time our church has been greatly blessed ; 
and we take great pleasure in commending him to j'ou as a 
Christian and gentleman every way worthy of your confidence. 



EEV. HENKY M. PAYNTER. 557 

"'As to his banishment we can say nothing, as we are wholly 
ignorant of the charge upon which he was taken away from us. 
But we can say to you that, as a Christian minister and gentle- 
man, he stands high with his church, and that we deeply feel his 
loss. We trust that our Heavenly Father may put it into your 
hearts to extend to him that aid and assistance that his condi- 
tion, at this time, requires. He has the sympathies and prayers 
of his entire church. 

(Signed) William S. Myers, ") 

Marcus Williams, l Ruling Elders. 
G. S. Moore, ) 

Wm. M. Johnson, 1 -p, , „ 

T., . ir^-.^ V Deacons. 

James Hood, J 

Rev. Mr. Paynter is now located at Hopkinsville, Ken- 
tucky, and is not only successful in his ministerial labors, but 
is also highly esteemed by all who know him. 

We have given a plain narrative of the sufferings endured 
by a minister of the Gospel, whose fealty to the Government 
was beyond doubt, and whose only offence consisted in his 
persistent refusal to take an active part in the struggle, and 
prostitute his pulpit to partisan purposes. 

Mr. Paynter says : " I will ever remember the words and 
acts of kindness of the soldiers, who did all they dared to 
alleviate my suffering. I freely and fully forgive all the an- 
noyances and indignities I was made to suffer by the officers, 
seemingly with delight. And I am glad to cherish no other 
feelings toward them ; for one, at least, has since been sum- 
moned before that Judge, who will impartially decide whether 
or no what I endured was justly inflicted upon me." 

His persecutions will remain a stain on the escutcheon of 
the nation, which time cannot efface. 

Imprisonment and suffering have not changed his judgment 
or feelings as to the value of our Union, nor lessened his love 
for those blessings bequeathed to us by our sires. 



D. C. WATTLES. 

TO show the world the frail tenure by which the American 
people held their liberties under the despotism established 
by Mr. Lincoln, and which hung like a funeral pall over the 
country, we need only cite the following example. Comment 
is unnecessary. 

D. C. Wattles, of l^orth Branch, Michigan, was arrested 
on the 23d of I^ovember, 1862, under the following circum- 
stances. The family of this gentleman, a short time pre- 
viously, had been straining blackberries. His children, in 
their amusement, raised upon a pole the rag that had been 
Btained by the juice in the process of straining 

One of the horde of infamous informers who infested the 
length and breadth of the land, advised the War Depart- 
ment that Mr. Wattles had raised a secesh flag:. He was im- 
mediately seized by an inquisitorial Provost Marshal, and 
transported more than a thousand miles from his friends, 
home, and State, and immured in Fort Lafayette. InTo 
charges were ever preferred against him, nor was he told the 
name of the secret enemy who had lodged complaint against 
him. At the expiration of Jive months^ when the Washington 
authorities were convinced that he had fully expiated his 
crime, he was discharged upon " taking the oath." 

558 



C0L0:N^EL SAMUEL NORTH, MAJOR LEVI COHN, 
AND LIEUTENAN'T MORVEN" M. JONES. 

THE trial of Samuel North, Levi Cohn, and Morven M. 
Jones, before an United States Military Commission, 
commenced at Washington, D. C, November 3, 1864, and 
ending January 7, 1865, was one of the most interesting and 
important ever held in the United States, involving numerous 
and highly important legal and constitutional questions, in- 
cluding those affecting the powers of the Government and 
the rights and privileges of American citizens. 

The commission was instituted on the 27th of January, 
1864, more than nine months before the accused were arrested, 
to try whoever might be brought before it. General Abner 
Doubleday was President. The trial did not end until the 
7th of January, 1865. North was retained in prison nine- 
teen, and Jones and Cohn thirty-two days, after the trial 
closed. 

New York had promptly responded to the President's first 
call for 75,000 men, and cheerfully met those which followed. 
The inexperience of the officers was felt in the care and 
management of the sick and wounded. With the hearty 
approval of Governor Seymour, the Legislature of New York 
passed a bill on the 24th of April, 1863, authorizing the 
(xovernor to appoint suitable agents to provide additional 
relief for the sick, wounded, furloughed, and discharged 
soldiers, and to facilitate the removal of the bodies of de- 
ceased soldiers, and to perform such other duties as he might 
direct. He was also authorized to employ surgeons and other 
agents to look after the sick and wounded. To meet these 
expenses, $200,000 were appropriated. 

The Governor appointed Colonel Samuel North, a distin- 

659 



5fi0 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

guished citizen of Otsego County, who had been a magistrate 
of his town, clerk of his county, and for seven years an 
agent of the I'ost-office Department, and then a merchant, 
agent for the State at the City of Washington. The manner 
in which he discharged his duties was satisfactory to all who 
did business with liim. 

At his request, the Governor determined to send a State 
paymaster to pay all back bounties, and whatever might be 
due to soldiers from the State. The Paymaster General of 
the State recommended Major Levi Cohn, then in his own 
office, for this employment, and he was selected by the Gov- 
ernor, and repaired to Washington to perform his duties. 
He stood .high in Albany as a book-keeper and merchant's 
cashier, and an accurate and trusted business-man. 

Nurses were needed at the hospitals. Morven M. Jones 
had assisted in raising a company of volunteers at Utica, 
and was commissioned a Lieutenant and entered the Army 
of the Potomac. He was in the second battle of Bull Run, 
and was taken prisoner. He was compelled to march four 
days without food, and was subsequently thrown into Libby 
Prison, where he remained until paroled. He was subse- 
quently exchanged. Being advanced in years, his health 
became too much impaired to permit him to continue in the 
service, and he resigned. The General State Agent, knowing 
him and his wife personally, requested them by telegraph to 
proceed to Washington to engage in hospital duties. On the 
second day after its receipt, their house was closed, and they 
on" their way to duty. They, like Major Cohn, reported to 
Colonel North, and then entered upon their arduous duties. 
The manner in which Governor Seymour executed this law 
has never been the subject of complaint by any one. 

On the 21st of April, 1864, the Legislature passed another 
law, authorizing volunteer soldiers in the national service to 
vote, and prescribing the mode of doing so. This law was 
so framed that, if not executed in an open and public man- 
ner, innumerable frauds might be committed under it. Gov- 
ernor Seymour proposed to the leading officials of the Repub- 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHEES. 561 

lican party, so to arrange as to have all the voting in an 
open and public manner, under the superintendence of a re- 
presentative of each political party. This reasonable propo- 
sition Avas neither accepted, nor even answered. 

The law required the votes to be authenticated by a Is'ew 
York commissioned officer. These being mostly Republicans, 
exercised a controlling influence over the soldiers, and espe- 
cially so when they were taken in secret. 

JSTeither Colonel JSTorth, Major Cohn, nor Lieutenant Jones 
was charged by Governor Seymour with any duties under 
this act. If soldiers called, wishing to vote, they were 
aided by some one person present, but never by Colonel 
North or Major Cohn, and only on one or two occasions by 
Lieutenant Jones. But it was assumed by Republicans, 
Colonel I^orth's office was the headquarters of Democratic 
votino;, and that sreat frauds and numerous forgeries wore 
committed there. It was thought that the arrest and con- 
viction of Governor Seymour's agent before election, ou 
charges of fraud and forgery, would secure the success of 
the Republican ticket. 

Without an affidavit, or any evidence that a crime liad 
been committed, Mr. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, is- 
sued an order for the arrest of " Colonel Xorth, James M. 
Murphy, Cohn, and Jones," and he directed the seizure of 
all the papers of the agency, and all their private papers at 
their lodgings. To screen himself from personal responsibility, 
he stated in it, that it was issued by order of the President. 
Under it. Colonel North, Major Cohn, and Lieutenant Jones 
were arrested on the 27th of October, 1864, and thrown into 
the Old Capitol Prison, without being informed of the accu- 
f?ation8 made against them. When Governor Seymour re- 
ceived information of this outrage upon citizens of New 
York, employed by him and acting for the State, he appointed 
Amasa J. Parker, William F. Allen, and William Kelly, 
three distinguished and well-known citizens, to proceed to 
Washington and investigate the piatter, and employ, in be- 
half of the State, counsel to defend the accused. They 
o6 



562 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

faithfull}^ performed these duties and reported to the Gov- 
ernor. 

The following is an extract from the report of these com- 
missioners : 

"They found them in the 'Carrol Prison' (a part of the 
Old Capitol Prison) in close confinement. They leairned that 
]\lessrs. i^orth and Cohn had been confined together in one 
room, and had not been permitted to leave it for the four 
days they had been prisoners for the purpose of answering 
the calls of nature. They had been supplied with meagre 
and coarse prison rations, to be eaten in their room, where 
they constantly breathed the foul atmosphere arising from 
the standing odor. They had no vessel out of which to drink 
water, except the one furnished them for the purpose of uri- 
nation. They had but one chair, and had to sleep three of 
the nights of their confinement on a sack of straw upon the 
floor. They had not been permitted to see a newspaper, and 
were ignorant of the cause of their arrest. All communica- 
tions between them and the outer world had been denied 
them." 

The visit of these commissioners improved their condition 
for a time, and they were permitted to purchase better fare, 
and were placed in a room with a dozen other persons. But 
they were subsequently separated, kept in solitude, and re- 
duced to the hardest of prison fare, compelling them to sub- 
sist upon "hardtack," Avhich they could not eat; sometimes, 
only three crackers a day for each, with sour apple-sauce and 
black coiTee. 

They were required to obey prison rules which were not 
posted up, or otherwise accessible. They ofi^'ered the Super- 
intendent five dollars for a copy, which he refused. They 
were required to obey laws of which they had no knowledge. 

The object of this severe and brutal treatment was to break 
down the independence of the accused, and induce them to 
become informers upon one another, and upon Governor Sey- 
mour and others in New York, in order to secure themselves 
a release, or, at least, better treatment. After trying it a 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 563 

second time, the effort to accomplish the object in this man- 
ner was abandoned, and they were allowed to supply them- 
selves with better food and some needful conveniences. But 
they were never permitted to see any person, except in the 
presence of some official of the prison. In a written com- 
munication from the War Department, Mrs. Jones was ex- 
pressly refused permission to see her husband, and the Judge 
Advocate roughly told her she had better go home, as her 
husband would be convicted and sent to the State Prison, if 
not sentenced to anything worse. All correspondence, except 
through the prison officials, was forbidden, and for a long time 
they were not permitted to read newspapers. At one period, 
after the trial began, Cohn was not permitted, for a whole 
week, to see his counsel, although it was important that they 
should consult together. 

The accused were arraigned and charged " with conduct 
])rejudicial to the military service of the United States, and 
in fraud of the election rights and duties of the soldiers and 
officers of said service." 

The specification set up that they were the ostensible 
agents of the State of J^ew York, to aid in the execution of 
the law authorizing soldiers to vote, and had fraudulently 
signed, or caused to be signed, blanks under said law pur- 
porting to have been signed by soldiers, and witnessed and 
sworn to in the presence of, and by an officer, and intended 
to be used at the election in fraud of the soldiers' rights. 

The counsel for the accused pleaded to the jurisdiction of 
the commission: 

Ist. The commission had no jurisdiction over the parties. 

2d. ]S[ot over the sul)ject-matter. 

3d. The subject is not within the powers of tlie ]N"ational 
Government. 

4th. The National Government has never legislated on the 
gul)jcct. 

5th. There is tio law of the iSTational Government authoriz- 
ing the institution of a military tribunal to try a person, not 
in the military service, for any offence, he not being a spy. 



564 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

In support of this plea, the counsel cited numerous author- 
ities, including the Constitution of the United States, .defin- 
ing the powers of the Judiciary, and prohibiting the exercise 
of criminal power, except through presentments by grand 
jurors, and limiting military powers to persons in the mili- 
tary service. 

It was contended that the acts charged were not declared, 
by any law, to be an offence, and Congress had not attempted 
to confer jurisdiction. iSTo national tribunal could enforce 
the penal laws of a State. It had been settled by the Supreme 
Court that no common-law offences existed under the Federal 
Government. The Courts of the district were open. The 
laws had not been suspended, nor martial law been declared. 
If the laws of T^ew York had been violated, that State had the 
will and capacity to assert her dignity and defend her sove- 
reignty. A conviction by the commission could not be plead- 
ed in bar, if the accused should be prosecuted in her courts. 
This tribunal could not deprive her of her rights to vindicate 
her dignity and execute her laws. If the commission has not 
jurisdiction, its members will be personally answerable for 
their acts. An English soldier had once been proceeded 
against and sentenced to be punished by an unauthorized 
commission like this. He died while undergoing the punish- 
ment it had ordered. Years afterward the ofhcer ordering 
it was indicted for murder, convicted, and actually hung. 
Shall we be less firm in defence of the rights and lives of our 
citizens than mother England ? 

The Judge Advocate answered by sajang, among other 
things, " In time of war, a great many provisions of the 
Constitution, which were intended for time of peace, are, 'pro 
tanto, suspended. The Constitution, or rather the mass 
of its details, is intended for time of peace ; but, in time of 
wai , the general war powers therein delegated to Congress 
and. to the President, take the place of the general provisions 
in time of peace." 

He did not inform the commission who had the power to 
suspend these provisions, or how the people wdre to learn 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 565 

wbich were suspended, and when that occurred, nor how thej 
were to know when they were restored. The fallac}^ and ab- 
surdity of this argument were most fully exposed. But the 
commission concurred in these monstrous doctrines, and over- 
ruled the plea to their jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of 
the United States has since decided that they had no juris- 
diction. 

When the decision overruling the plea was announced, the 
Judge Advocate demanded final judgment against the accused 
upon the absurd ground that the plea to the jurisdiction 
admits the truth of the charge and specifications. Upon 
this motion, a long argument ensued. The proposition was 
80 monstrous, and the reasoning against it too strong to be 
overcome by the sophistry of the prosecutor, the motion 
was overruled, and the accused permitted to plead, w^here- 
upon they entered a plea of not guilty. 

After issue joined, the accused demanded separate trials. 
This was resisted upon the ground that it would enable one 
of them to testify in favor of the others, and thus avoid a 
conviction. Although clearly entitled to the privilege of 
separate trials, the commission refused to permit it. 

The counsel for the accused then moved that the Judge 
Advocate be required, before proceeding to trial, to elect 
which he would try as principals, and which, as accomplices, 
both ofi-ences being averred in the specification, without any 
means whereby they could determine for which offence they 
were to be tried. This motion was resisted on the ground 
that, if he were now required to make election, it would 
diminish the chances of conviction. The commission refused 
the motion. 

The counsel for the accused thereupon demanded process 
to compel the attendance of witnesses in their behalf. This 
brought on a long discussion. The Judge Advocate resisted 
their right to require the attendance of more than two wit- 
nesses each to establish their good character. The accused 
demanded several. The commission, without assigning any 
reasons therefor, determined to reserve its decision until a 



56Q AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

later period, and thereupon allowed tlie Judge Advocate to 
call witnesses, and proceed with the trial. 

Without deciding whether the accused should he allowed 
process for any witnesses, the commission arbitrarily and 
most wrongfully allowed the trial to commence and progress. 
A greater outrage was never perpetrated by a tribunal claim- 
ing to administer law and justice than the refusal of the 
means to procure the attendance of the witnesses of the 
accused, as provided in the Constitution, and, at the same 
time, permitting the prosecution to proceed in the trial. 

James 0. Clephane was then called as a witness by the 
Judge Advocate, and testified that he went some two days 
before, with the Judge Advocate, who was dressed in citizen's 
clothes, to the Carrol Prison, and had Jones, one of the ac- 
cused, brought before him — that he made a confession, to 
which he made oath, being the same published in the "Even- 
ing Star" the day the trial commenced. This paper contained 
statements which, if unexplained, were injurious to Jones, 
but on which no conviction could be sustained. On cross- 
examination it appeared that Clephane went to the prison as 
a stenographer and took notes — that Jones's attention was 
not called to this fact, nor was what he took down read over 
or stated in substance to him. Without attempting to make 
a statement, or to give a narrative of events, he had simply 
answered the questions proposed to him by the Judge Ad- 
vocate. On being asked if he would be willing to swear to 
what he had stated, said he would. Clephane wrote out a 
statement, and headed it thus : " Morven Jones, being duly 
sworn by John A. Foster, deposeth as follows." This state- 
ment was proved by Clephane to be false. The counsel for 
the accused required him to produce his notes, and when he 
did so, and translated them into English, the concluding 
words were : 

Q. " Are you willing to be sworn to this statement?" 

A. "lam." 

This proves that Jones did not in fact swear to the state- 
ment, although willing to swear to what he did say. Cle- 



COLO X EL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 567 

pliane and the Judge Advocate are responsible for getting 
up and publishing this fraudulent paper. On comparing this 
pretended affidavit with Clephane's notes, they were found 
unlike in many essential particulars, and that Clephane had 
left out of the assumed confession what Jones had stated 
favorable to the accused, and which proved beyond a doubt 
that no crime had been committed, or intended. The fol- 
lowing questions and answers he had omitted, but were found 
in his original notes : 

Q. " Do you know any case where names have been signed 
without the parties being present ? " 

A. ":N'o, sir." 

Q. " And never heard anybody say such a thing had hap- 
pened at any time ? " 

A. "No, sir." 

This covered the whole case, and proved all innocent. But 
the commission not only allowed this false affidavit to be re- 
ceived against Jones, but against North and Cohn, and refused 
to strike it out as evidence, when appealed to for the purpose. 
Such a violation of the rules of evidence as to make a state- 
ment of third persons evidence against those accused, except 
where a conspiracy had been charged and proved, cannot be 
found in the records of any trial in the civilized world, nor 
defended where reason and justice are respected. 

Josiah Cleghorn was then called by the prosecution, and 
testified that he was a Lieutenant in a negro regiment, and 
resided in Erie County, New York, that he called at North's 
office on the 20th of October, 1864, and found him and Jones 
there, and a man signing his name Murphy, who made out 
voting papers for him, which he signed and took away. He 
was told where to go to swear to them. That he did not in 
fact go and SAvear to them. That on the 25th or 26th of the 
month, he again went to Colonel North's office, when all 
three of the accused were there. He informed the persons 
present that his papers had been directed to the wrong post- 
office, and that he desired new ones to be made out, which 
Jones proceeded to do, he using blanks that had been pre- 



5Q8 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

viously signed by an officer. The old papers were twisted 
• up and thrown under the table, and new ones made out, which 
he signed and took away, the envelope containing a Demo- 
cratic vote. All was done as he wished, except he did not 
like the Democratic vote. On his cross-examination he swore 
that he "surrendered" this package to Mr. Clarence Seward, 
son of the Secretary, and that when he got the papers pre- 
pared it was not his intention to send them away. From 
his own statement it is inferrible that he was twice sent to 
Colonel North's otKce to obtain something out of which an 
accusation could be framed to cause arrests. Dalmer, whose 
susj)icions had been awakened concerning the State Agency, 
swore that early in October his suspicions had been aroused, 
and he had communicated them to Assistant Secretary Sew- 
ard, at the State Department. He and his brother Clarence 
doubtless were acting in concert, and prompted Dana to action. 
According to Cleghorn's statement, Jones neither perpetrated 
fraud nor forgery, but served him at his request. Clcgliorn 
was guilty of both fraud and falsehood. He went to the 
office with a lie in his njouth, and while there actually told 
several. On going a second time he did the same thinir. 

CD ^D ^ 

Jones obligingly served him without fee or reward. What 
was prepared for him he did not intend to use, but placed in 
hands which caused the arrest of the accused. This whole 
proceeding was planned and executed by Government officials 
enjoying the confidence of the Administration. They at- 
tempted to induce the commission of crime, that they might 
cause men to be punished. In this they were criminal. But 
they tailed. This pretended crime was no olfence. It was 
unmerited kindness bestowed upon a black-hearted conspira- 
tor, who was willing to ruin individuals for political effect. 

The counsel for the accused renewed his motion for process 
to obtain their witnesses. After sundry objections as to the 
numl)er, the prosecution having so utterly failed in its proof, 
the Judge Advocate consented, and the commission ordered 
subpoenas for such witnesses as were required. As the trial 
could not be completed before election, and there being no 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHEES. 569 

probability of any testimony damaging to the accused being 
obtained, the prosecution consented to adjourn the further 
hearing of the case until the 14th of November. 

On the reassembling of the commission, the Judge Advo- 
cate introduced and swore one Craig, who testihed t] 
Colonel ISTorth, early in October, made out voting papers f t , 
him. This was shown to be utterly false, as the papers, when 
produced, were conclusively proved not to be in his hand- 
writing, but in that of one Mott, who was not employed io: 
the ISTew York State Agency. 

One Palmer also swore that Jones, in the presence of Colo- 
nel ]S[orth, tried to induce him to sign a lot of blanks, which 
he refused, and of which he gave immediate notice at the 
State Department to Assistant Secretary Seward. This story 
was improbable and undoubtedly false, as Colonel ]Srorth had 
been, for several days previously and subsequent to the time 
he named, absent from Washington in the State of New 
Yoi'k, and that no proceedings preparatory to voting at his 
oifice took phice until after his return, and that then neither 
of the accused became the actors. 

No other material evidence was offered by the prosecution 
concerning the crimes charged upon the accused. But the 
commission indulged the Judge Advocate, contrary to all 
just rules of law, in an endeavor to prove that somebody 
had committed some other crime, not charged in the speciti- 
cations. This seemed to be an effort to lind evidence to excuse 
the arrest, imprisonment, and trial. It was a failure. No 
such crime was proved, even if full credence had been given 
to all the idle tales invented by witnesses to secure a trip to 
Washington at the expense of the Government. 

Various letters and papers found in the New York Agency, 
not in the handwriting of either the accused, nor shown to 
have been in their possession, were oflered in evidence. Their 
introduction, without evidence connecting them with the ac- 
cused, was objected to. But the objection was overruled and 
they were admitted in evidence, but proved nothing material.- 
Here the opening evidence for the prosecution was closed. 



570 A M E E I C A X B A S T I L E. 

The prosecution having rested their case, and there being 
no evidence against Colonel Xorth, nor pretence of any 
against Major Cohn, a motion was made to discharge them. 
This was resisted b}'' the Judge Advocate on the ground, if 
discharged, they might be called as witnesses for the defence, 
and the conviction wholly defeated. This reasonable and 
proper motion was overruled. 

The accused introduced a large number of witnesses to 
prove their high character, and among them Judge i^elson, 
of the United States Snpreme Court, Governor Fenton, the 
Republican member of Congress from Colonel N^orth's dis- 
trict, Judge Garvin, of IsTew York, and several distinguished 
citizens of Albany, ITtica, and Washington. They continued 
this sort of evidence until the commission announced that 
further evidence on that point was unnecessary. 

They then proved that the State Agency was a public place, 
where a large number of persons were employed, and others 
continually coming and going. That Colonel Bradley, ISTorth's 
predecessor and a Republican, occupied a place where he 
could see and hear whatever occurred. The prosecution did 
not call him. It was contended, under such circumstances, 
it was not probable that frauds and forgeries had been there 
attempted. 

The accused offered as a witness, Charles ^r, Schofield. 
The Judge Advocate objected to his being sworn, on the 
ground that he had inserted in the accusation the name of 
" Schofield," without any given name, or other description, 
as a defendant. He had been a daily attendant upon the 
trial, and had not been arrested. He had been employed at 
the Agency, and could testify to nearly everything that had 
occurred there. After full discussion, the commission decided 
that no one could be sworn whose family name had been 
inserted in the accusation, whetlier arrested, or put upon trial 
or not. They thus, in legal etfect, declared that the Judge 
Advocate had the power to deprive the accused of all their 
witnesses by inserting family names in the charges. Under 
this decision, it is the Judge Advocate, and not the law, that 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 571 

deprives accused persons of evidence to defend themselves. 
He may insert the name of every man whom he suspects of 
knowing facts in favor of the accused, and thus prevent his 
being sworn. This decision excluded another person who 
had also been present and had seen and heard all that 
occurred in Colonel North's office. 

After the trial had progressed several weeks, Major Cohn 
was separated from his companions, and his counsel, Hon. R. H. 
Gillet, refused permission to see him upon his general pass. 
A new and special one from the Judge Advocate, or Secretary 
of War, was required. The former refused to give one, and 
informed the counsel that Cohn had employed other counsel, 
whose name he would not give, and did not wish to see him. 
As he left the prison, Major Cohn beckoned to him from a 
window to come up and see hiiu. For a whole week the 
counsel daily pressed the Judge Advocate to permit them to 
see Major Cohn and learn from him his* wishes. But he 
refused. On one morning the counsel saw the Judge Advo- 
cate and his stenographer going toward the President's, and 
renewed his application, but was abruptly refused. At that 
very moment the Superintendent of the prison had Major 
Cohn in a carriage, not over thirty feet distant, taking him 
to the President's, where the Judge Advocate and stenogra- 
pher joined them. Major Cohn had been coaxed and threat- 
ened, and often told by prison officials while shut up alone, 
that he could be set free by coming out with a full statement 
of the whole matter. He consented to make such a state- 
ment, but only to the President. When the counsel saw the 
Judge Advocate and stenographer. Major Cohn was on his 
way to make the promised statement. 

Before making it, he asked the President, if he was to be 
released on making it, and was assured by him that he should 
be discharged and not tried. He thereupon made a full state- 
ment of all he knew of the matter, and among other things 
stated that he had never committed forgery or fraud upon 
any soldier. The Judge Advocate asked him numerous ques- 
tions, and pressed him hard to admit that he had forged the 



572 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

name of one Sinitli, but not having done anything of the 
kind, he refused to do so. He told the President that Colonel 
Korth had not attended to the filling out of blanks, or voting 
at all, and that he (Cohn) had never seen a vote taken where 
the soldier did not sign the papers himself — that he saw 
Colonel ]Srorth,the evening before the arrest, burn the blanks 
that Captain Otternott had signed to take and use at Camp 
Distribution, and which he had left behind when he went, by 
mistake. AVhen Major Cohn was leaving the office, the Pres- 
ident told liim he would be discharged, and only be required 
to remain on parole until after the trial. The President 
remarked that he saw no criminality in anything stated by 
Cohn. 

On going down stairs from the President's ofiice, the Judge 
Advocate told Major Cohn, if he were discharged, he should 
state that it was through the influence of his (the Judge Ad- 
vocate's) uncle, Henry Smith, a lawyer of Albany, who had 
been permitted to have free access to Major Cohn in prison, 
after he was separated from his companions, while his regu- 
lar counsel had been excluded. Why Mr. Smith came from 
Albany to Washington, and why he was allowed to see Major 
Cohn when he chose, to the exclusion of his own counsel, and 
why Major Cohn was separated from his companions, why 
the counsel who had served him through the most important 
portions of the trial was excluded, and why he was privately 
taken to the President's office with the Judo-e Advocate and 
a stenographer whose reputation had been so seriously dam- 
aged by his own oath, to make a statement, and promised a 
discharge from trial, can only be answered by drawing the 
conclusion which such facts naturally suggest. They fully 
authorize the belief that Major Cohn was separated from his 
companions and denied the right to see his counsel to break 
down his spirit — that Smith was introduced to advise and 
persuade him to make such a statement as would cause his 
discharge, and if obtained he would expect heavy compensa- 
tion from Major Cohn 's rich relatives — that an accusatory 
confession would save those ensraijed in the arrest and trial 



COLONEL NOETH, AND OTHERS. 573 

from the odium already arising from an unlawful arrest and 
brutal imprisonment, and would let them down easy. In 
their eyes, Major Cohn committed a new offence by not accus- 
ing any one of crime. His integrity had resisted all the 
temptations held out to him. By way of punishment, he was 
remanded to prison, roughly treated, and tried. He was 
acquitted without any of the agency of this Albany counsel, 
who so mysteriously came into and went out of the case. In 
this strange proceeding, neither the arrest, the crushing im- 
prisonment, nor the trial found any justification. The for- 
feiture of the President's pledge covered him and those en- 
gaged in the matter with imperishable infamy. 

At the next meeting of the commission, this pledge of 'the 
President was formally brought before it by special plea, 
accompanied with a demand, if its truth should be questioned, 
of a subpoena requiring the attendance of the President. 
After argument, the commission announced, " The court de- 
clines to entertain the plea, or application of the accused, 
Levi Cohn, unless there is a written order produced, ema- 
nating from the President, or Secretary of War." This deci- 
sion was a self-stultifying one, furnishing conclusive evidence 
that the commission had no settled convictions of duty, and 
diire not act upon a vitally important question without the 
permission of those creating it, even if such question fur- 
nished a controlling issue within theii* assumed jurisdiction, 
involving the honor of the President and the character of the 
country. The commission knew that the conditions of action 
they imposed could not be complied with. It would have 
been more manly to have overruled the plea and said nothing. 

Soon after the commencement of the trial, which lasted 
over two months, the Judge Advocate opened a place in the 
city of I^ew York, to which people from all parts of the 
country were brought at the expense of the Government, by 
subpoena, and where they were privately examined, and their 
statements taken down by a stenographer. If matter accu- 
satory of the defendants was developed, the party was sub- 
poenaed to attend the trial at Washington. This mode of 



S74 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

fisliing for evidence brought a vast number to the place of 
inquisition. Of all these, a few were brought before the com- 
mission. Not one of those who came testified anything against 
either of the accused, or attempted to disprove the good char- 
acter imputed to them by their own witnesses. But the skill 
of the Judge Advocate invented a new mode of attack, which 
the commission tolerated. He was allowed to attempt to 
prove that, notwithstanding the high moral character proved 
in behalf of the accused, their character was questioned in 
political matters, and that they would get political advan- 
tages whenever they could. But tliis effort entirely failed, 
except as to Colonel ISTorth, who, it was said, had been doubted 
by one man. Daniel S. Dickinson had declared that he had 
no confidence in him politically after having, at Baltimore, 
refused to vote for his nomination for the Presidency. And 
here this effort of drowning men to save themselves by catch- 
ing at straws, ended. 

The case was elaborately argued by W. A. Beach, of Troy, 
N. Y., and R. H. Gillet,of ISTew Lebanon, for the defendants, 
and by John A. Foster, as Judge Advocate. Mr. Beach elo- 
quently remarked : 

" You see this case mingles with the great topics of gov- 
ernmental power which have stirred the hearts of the world 
since the endless struggle began between liberty and oppres- 
sion. You cannot, if you would, belittle it. It is not alone 
the fate of these defendants you are to decide. Strange as 
it may seem, here — even here, before a military commission, 
the legal representative of the Government of the United 
States demands a judgment, affirming the suspension of the 
Constitution. 

" He seeks the liberty, if not the lives, of these defendants, 
over the shattered fragments of liberty and law. The issue 
is sharply made between the Government and the citizen. 
The learned Judge Advocate concedes, argumentatively, that 
he can reach the accused only through a broken Constitution. 
Your Honors must approve his amazing doctrines, or you 
must acquit." 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 575 

In liis concluding remarks, Mr. Gillet, in belialf of the 
accused, said: 

'' ^N^orth, Colin, and Jones are innocent men. If you find 
them guilty, you will never be satislied with your decision, nor 
feel proud of having sat in this case. If the law required 
you, as in France, to write down in your finding the testimony 
against each, whose evidence and what words would you 
select to show them, or either of them, guilty ? Can you 
select and put on paper words that you will say prove crime ? 
■^^'hen reflecting on your decision, try the experiment — read 
what you collate, and reflect ui)on it, and consider whether' all 
you thus bring together is not consistent with their inno- 
cence. Consider whether there is no solution but in crime. 
You must be certain, beyond all reasonable doubt, of their 
guilt, before you convict. If the proof is not clear and con- 
clusive, an inward monitor will remind you, when you hear 
this case mentioned, of your own doubts, and j^our dissatisfac- 
tion with the result. You will not feel at ease, nor will the 
plaudits of a satisfied republic be yours. 

" It cannot be denied that the present trial has grown out 
of the recent party conflict. The eyes of Europe, as well as 
all America, are upon the proceedings of this commission. 
They will be read and scrutinized, and judgment rendered 
upon them. All mankind will give a common decision. If 
that decision sustains you, you will occupy an inviting page 
in history. But if, on the contrary, it shall be that you acted 
in violation of the Constitution and without jurisdiction or 
authority, that there existed no law which had been vio- 
lated, and that you condemned without clear and undoubted 
evidence of guilt, then that page will be a blot — a record of 
unparalleled wrong and injustice among tribunals claiming to 
administer justice. You will make your own record, and 
impress upon it the character your acts will bear. In the one 
case mankind will admire, and in the other condemn. Your 
decision will be impressed upon our country, and give it char- 
acter for justice or injustice, both now and in all future time, 
like the decisions of Hale or Jeffreys, The Administration 



57G AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

which brought tliis trihunal into existence, sustains it in the 
exercise of its functions, and which approves and executes 
its decisions, will sliare in tlie common approval of mankind, 
or will stagger under the weight which will rest upon and 
finally crush it. Both the honor of the Administration and 
of the country are involved in the decision you shall make. 
In my judgment, honor follows acquittal. I speak plainly, 
because it is my duty frankly to express what I believe. The 
case of my clients is now' with you. I ask no sympathy, but 
demand justice for them in tlie name of the Constitution and 
laws of my country." 

The final argument before the commission was on the 7th 
of January, ISGo, although the record. General Holt says, 
shows no proceedings after the 4th. The finding of the 
commission, as shown on the record as certified by Judge 
Advocate General Holt, was in these words : 

Final Decision. 

"The commission was then cleared for deliberation, and, 
after due consideration, do find tlie accused, Samuel North, 
Levi Cohn, and Morven M. Jones, as follows: 

" As to the defendants Samuel N"orth and Levi Cohn : 

" As to the specification — not guilty. 

" As to the charge — not guilty. 

"As to the defendant Morven M. Jones: 

" As to the specification — guilty, except as to the words 
' with the intent and for the purpose of having such blanks, 
so signed, used as and for the deed of the soldier whose 
name purported to be signed thereto, and in fraud of the true 
electors.' 

"As to the charge — not guilty. 

" And do therefore acquit said Samuel North, Levi Cohn, 
and Morven M. Jones. 

"Signed — John A. Foster, Colonel and Judge Advocate. 

"Signed — Abncr Doubleday, Major-General Volunteers, 
President M. C. 

"Ofiicial — J. Holt, Judge Advocate General." 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 577 

General Holt, in a letter to Hon. J. L, V. Pruyn, states that 
these proceedings were not filed in his office until the 2Gth 
of January, 1865. 

Where were they between the close of the argument and 
making the decision, and their being filed in the Judge Ad- 
vocate General's ofiice? This was a period of painful sus- 
pense to the prisoners. Public rumor said they were all con- 
victed, then that jSTorth was pardoned. The " New York 
Tribune," of the 27th of January, contained the following 
from its Washington correspondent : " Colonel j^orth has been 
released by the War Department. He was convicted by the 
finding of the Court which tried him. Before his trial was 
concluded, it was felt here that Xorth would escape all 
punishment. The pressure to have his trial stopped wa« 
inmiens«. This was nearly done, but finally desisted from. 
The pressure for his unconditional release has been irre- 
sistible.'.' 

Why this reiteration of the falsehood that Colonel North 
had been convicted ? The record had been withheld for 
weeks, either by the Judge Advocate, John A. Foster, or by 
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, as it did not reach the 
Bureau of Military Justice until the 26th of January, 1865, 
to the great injury of the accused, who had been proved not 
guilty. This neglect of a public duty doubtless led to the- 
rumors that North had been convicted, and, when released, 
to the further falsehood, that he had been pardoned — all with 
the view of satisfying the public that there was good reason 
for the arrest and trials. The delay in filing the record waa 
to allow the public mind to become occupied with some- 
thing else, and to have these great wrongs forgotten. Colonel 
North was discharged on the 26th of January, 1865, under 
an order from the Assistant General's office, stating his ac- 
quittal, and directing his immediate release from confinement, 
which was not then communicated to him. He was merely 
told by the keeper "to pick up his traps and leave the prison 
d — d quick — to go where he had a mind to." It was not 
until a subsequent time that he was furnished with evidence 

37 



578 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

of his acquittal. It is probable that, but for deep censure 
emanating from Congress and leading men in all parts of the 
country, Colonel North would not have been released at the 
time he left the prison, lie was well known to a large por- 
tion of the American people, who saw nothing in the pub- 
lished evidence to warrant conviction or detention, and hence 
their eitbrts to secure his restoration to liberty. This ac- 
counts for the doors of his prison being thrown open. He 
was too prominent a man to render it safe and prudent longer 
to continue his illegal imprisonment — to deprive him of 
liberty without an adequate cause. Fear, and not justice, 
prompted this tardy action. 

But why were Major Cohn and Lieutenant Jones detained 
two weeks after his release ? Was it to avoid showing the 
whole failure at once, or because they were much less known, 
and deemed more friendless, and might more safely be kept 
shut up? It is certain, that E. M. Stanton, Secretary of 
"VVar, and Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, told Mrs. 
Jones and the Rev. Mr. Corey, that they had been convicted 
and sentenced to the State prison for life. Mr. Stanton twice 
told the Hon. John Ganson, M. C, from Bnlialo, the same 
thing, and did the same to others. Mrs. Jones returned home 
to Utica believing that her husband had been found guilty 
and sentenced to the State prison for life. This belief became 
general. Major Cohn's friends, supposing that the story was 
true, went to AVashington to ascertain what could be done to 
secure his release. 

What object had Stanton and Holt in telling and repeat- 
ing these unmitigated falsehoods? Why strike an almost 
deadly blow at a poor woman who had nursed our wounded 
and dying soldiers? Why inflict pain and torture upon 
Major Cohn and Lieutenant Jones, and compel them to re- 
main in a loathsome prison, when they knew they had been 
tbund not guilty, and Avere entitled to be discharged and to 
enjo}^ freedom? Were these untruths for the supposed benefit 
of their party or friends? Truth compels us to say, that it 
is quite proba])le that a willingness to allow friends to levy 



COLONEL NORTH, AND OTHERS. 579 

llack mail had had something to do with these false pre- 
tences. At that time there were many men in Washington 
who made very large professions concerning their power and 
influence with the President and his Cabinet and their ability 
to procure pardons. Major Cohn's father and uncle were 
deemed rich merchants in Albany. The latter, when in 
Albany, and often when in "Washington, was approached in 
mystic language in relation to the release of his nephew. 
Except in the single instance of Governor Thomas Ford, of 
Ohio, he turned a deaf ear to all such suggestions. Ford's 
promises proved fallacious. After being detained two weeks 
after the release of Colonel North, on the 8th of February, 
1865, the prison doors were thrown open, and they were 
ordered to leave as quick as possible. They were unable, 
until the 12th of February, 1867, to ascertain what was the 
actual decision of the commission. Neither the Secretary 
of War nor Judge Advocate General would give either the 
information desired. Whether this refusal was because they 
disregarded their claims to the information, or for fear it 
would conflict with their oral statements, we can only con- 
jecture. It may be both. 

We place this arrest, imprisonment, and trial on record, 
that our countrymen and their descendants may learn the 
appalling consequences that flow from disregarding the Con- 
stitution and laws, and violating both, to secure and continue 
the ascendency of a political party, who claim to act under a 
law higher than the Constitution, and who ridicule that 
sacred instrument, when its provisions are appealed to as the 
fundamental law of the land. 



H. W. ITEWLAND. 

HW. NEWLAND was arrested at liis residence near 
• Benton, Franklin County, Illinois, on the night of the 
19th of August, 1862. The arrest was made by Major Board, 
Deputy Provost Marshal, accompanied by a detachment of 
United States soldiers. He showed neither warrant nor 
other legal authority, merely arresting the persons w^hose 
names were written on a slip of paper which he carried in 
his hand. ISTeAvland was carried away from his family, who, 
like himself, were ignorant of the cause of his arrest. Ho 
was taken to a station on the Illinois Central Railroad, and 
placed, in company with eight others who had been made 
prisoners at the same time, on a car, and conveyed to Spring- 
field, under guard. 

At dark, he and his fellow-prisoners were ironed for safety. 
At Decatur, however, they were met by United States Mar- 
shal D. L. Phillips, who ordered their irons to be taken oft'. 
Here they remained during the night, and on the following 
morning were forwarded to Washington City, ai-riving there 
on the 23d. Mr. Kewland was confined in the Old Capitol 
Prison, fed upon meagre and badly cooked food, and suliered 
much from the presence of vermin, and the many indignities 
that were heaped upan him, until the 25th of September, 
when he was released without a trial, and told to go home 
and keep aloof from politics. 

He in vain demanded to hear the charges against him, and 
to know the cause of his arrest. 

Mr. Newland is by occupation a fiirmer. Born and reared 
in Indiana, he emigrated to Illinois in ■ 1848, and lived in 
Stark County until 1859, when he removed to Franklin 
County, where he has since resided. 

•^ 580 



H. W. N E W L A N D. 581 

He took put little part in politics until the Presidential 
contest of 1860, when he became an ardent supporter of Mr. 
Douglas. On the election of Mr. Lincoln, he remained 
quietly at his home, abiding the issue of events, until aroused 
by the injustice the Administration manifested toward its 
political opponents. He spoke freely against arbitrary arrests, 
although repeatedly threatened by his neighbors. 

His health is much impaired by his confinement and suffer- 
ing, but he feels proud that he is one of a host, w^ho suf- 
fered political martyrdorh at the hands of a corrupt and 
.unscrupulous Administration- 



MAJOR J. J. N-QAII. 

MAJOR J. J. KOAII is a son of the late distinguislied 
Editor, Mordecai M. ^N'oah, of l^ew York city. He 
emigrated to Minnesota about twelve years ago, where he 
obtained a fair reputation at the Bar, beside having tilled 
some of the highest oiHces in the State with credit and 
ability. The lion. Henry M. Rice, United States Senator 
from Minnesota, states, in a letter from the Senate Chamber, 
that — 

"Major J. J. Noah, soon after the commencement of the 
rebellion, used his influence and gave his time and money 
in raising troops. lie was a long time in the field in the 
Southwest, but was, from ill health, compelled to resign. 
He is a lawyer and a gentleman. His loyalty, where best 
known, could never be questioned." 

He had been an officer in the 2d Minnesota Volunteers, 
one of the oldest volunteer regiments, with which he had 
served for a long time in the field, in the Department of 
General Buell. He had been detached and placed upon post 
duty, in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, when, finding his 
health greatly impaired by tlie exposure incurred in the 
winter campaign of 1861-62, he was compelled to tender his 
resignation, which was with some difficulty obtained ; and 
he was honorably discharged the Federal service, the latter 
part of June, 1862. 

On the 13th of July, 1862, while quietly sojourning with 
his family at the National Hotel, in Louisville", he was 
arrested by order of General Boyle, the Military Governor, 
or Commander of Kentucky, and, although a military prison 
was provided within the city for political prisoners, was in- 
stantly carried out of the State, and confined in the Jeffer- 

582 



MAJOR J. J. NOAH. 583 

sonville (Indiana) Penitentiaiy, He was not permitted to 
see any of his friends or family, and the place of his confine- 
ment was withheld from them — it heing currently stated 
that he was merely detained at the Gait House, so as to throw 
his immediate friends off the track while in search of him. 

It appears that a gentleman with whom Major Noah had 
a slight acquaintance, accidentally noticing him in prison at 
eTeffersonville, and being much astonished thereat, succeeded 
in communicating with him. The result was that the place 
of his confinement and the facts relating thereto were made 
known to George D. Prentice, Esq., the well-known veteran 
Editor of the " Louisville Journal," who, being a friend of 
Major Noah's, instantly, assisted by Mr. Osborn, also of the 
" Journal," set about obtaining his release. 

They found General Boyle in a terrible fury, obdurate and 
insolent, refusing to make known an}- charges, and declining 
to listen to any communication whatever in reference to the 
arrest. It was in vain to plead the well-known character of 
Major Noah for integrity and loyalty — to vouch for him in 
any way — to draw attention to his military and civil ser- 
vices : nothing could be done, and for some time it appeared 
that he might remain the inmate of a convict's cell — a guest 
of the felon's mansion — until it should please the capricious 
will of General Boyle to release him. 

Major Noah's arrest occasioned quite a commotion in Louis- 
ville, as his loyalty was considered beyond question, although 
his political opinions were adverse to those of the dominant 
party, he being well known as a partisan of the Democratic 
school, opposed to emancipation, the suspension of the writ 
of habeas corpus, and all illegal and arbitrary arrests. Find- 
ing the tide of public opinion setting against him. General 
Boyle at last amiably consented to release Major Noah, upon 
condition that he should give bonds in the sum of $10,000, 
proceed to the State of New York, and there remain during 
the rebellion. These terms, after having been first indig- 
nantly refused, were eventually complied with under protest, 
upon the advice of his friends. Major Noah was released, 



584 A 31 E 11 I C A N B A S T I L E. 

and, at a few Lours' notice, exiled into tlie State of Xew York. 
i*^o tran(>portation was furnished liini, nor were any of his 
expenses paid. It aitptars he was the first [lolitieal prisoner 
t'ontined in the penitentiary. 

Furnished with letters from Messrs. Prentiee, Cazlay, and 
other pronunent Constitutional Unionists of Kentin'ky, upon 
arriviuiX in New York eity. Major Noah eonuuunieated with 
Secretary Seward, asking an investigation, or an unctnuli- 
ticMial release and eaneellation oi' his bonds. 

'I'his doniand was referred to the War Department, hut Mr. 
Stanton took no notice whatever of the a])plieation or letter. 
After more tlian live months of arrest, upon the interference 
of the lion. Henry M. Kice, United States Senator of Min- 
nesota, wlio threatened, if relief was not granted, to r.rpose 
the ca.vc i)i the Si')iaft\ Major Noah was released uncondition- 
ally, and his bonds cancelle(h Tliis took j)lace after the fall 
elections, and while the popular mind was under excitement 
in reference to these arbitrary arrests. 

By the statement of the most reliable gentlemen, both of 
Kentucky and Minnesota, it seems that the pretext for Major 
Noah's arrest was the performance of a few acts of the sim- 
plest -courtesy to a Confederate surgeon, wlio was a fellow 
guest at the same hotel. It will be remembered that sur- 
geons are non-C()nd)atants, and, by express arrangements, are 
not taken prisoners by the contending armies. This surgeon 
was liberated from imjH'isonment at Johnson's Island, by vir- 
tue of General Orders of tlie War Department, releasing all 
surgeons iinconilitionallj/. 

The officer commanding did not furnisli him with trans- 
portation, nor indicate to him the route to pursue in returning 
to his lines ; but merely turned him loose in prison clothes, 
to lind his way into tlie Confederacy as best he might. Beg- 
ging his way to Louisville, this surgeon maile inquiry of the 
host of the hotel for some source of information as to what 
lie ought to do under these circumstances. 

lie was Nvithout money or decent clothes, and simply de- 
sired to conform to the res-ulations or rules which mio-ht 



M A J O E J. J. N O A IT. 585 

apply in his case, and procure liim the necessary transpor- 
tation. The host introduced him to Major Noah, with a 
request that he would advise this surgeon in conformity to 
what he helieved, from his military experience, would be 
requisite. It appears that this act of courtesy was performed, 
and for this he was arrested, thrown into a penitentiary, 
exiled from his home and pursuits, ruined in purse, and mor- 
tilied in spirit, without a preliminary hearing^ or even per- 
mitted an explanation. 

For five months, the War Department refused to notice 
his application for redress ; and, had not the prompt action 
of Senator Rice procured his release, he would have remained 
under the espionage of the bloodhounds and spies of the city 
of IsTew York in the Federal employ, prevented from embark- 
ing in any legitimate pursuits, or earning the requisite means 
for the maintenance of his family. 

This war, in the minds of most in authority, did not per- 
mit of any acts of courtesy whatever; and the simplest 
motives of benevolence were construed into rank disloyalty, 
particularly if the party exercising them was, in opinion, 
opposed to any of the acts of the Administration. 



IIO^^. EDSOX B. OLDS.* 

THE case of the Hon. EJsoii B. Olds is one of deep and 
thrilling interest. Dr. Olds was, for more than a quarter 
of a century, one of the most active and influential Demo- 
crats in the State of Ohio. Previously to his imprisonment, 
he had addressed political meetings in almost every county 
in the State. He had been twice elected to the popular 
branch of the Ohio Legislature from Pickaway County. 
He had also represented Fairfield and Pickaway counties in 
the Senate, and, during the session of 1846-47, had held the 
responsible position of Speaker of that body. In 1848, and 
again in 1850, he had been elected a representative to the 
Congress of the United States from a district which had been 
apportioned for the express purpose of defeating his election. 
In 1852, Dr. Olds was again elected to Congress from the 
Capital District of Ohio. In Congress, he, for four years, 
held the important position of Chairman of the House Com- 
mittee on Post Offices and Post Roads. 

During the Presidential canvasses of 1856 and 1860, he 
was most untiring in his appeals to the people to put down 
both the fanaticism of the North and the ultraism of the 
South. He dwelt with fervid eloquence upon the appeals of 
"Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Clay, Webster, and others, 
who frowned down every attempt to organize political sec- 
tional parties. 

To show the sound and strong Union sentiments held 
by Dr. Olds, not only prior to, but during the prosecu- 
tion of the war, we will make a few extracts from his cele- 
brated Berne Township speech, for the making of which, he 
was arrested and imprisoned. After reading copious extracts 

* Died January 24, 18G9. 

586 



^ EDSON B. OLDS. 587 

from the old fathers against the organization of sectional 
parties, he says : 

"These warnings, time and again, the Democracy have 
held up to the view of our Republican friends ; but we have 

been met only with taunts and derision There is not 

a Democrat within the sound of my voice but knows, as a 
matter of fact — knows, as a part of the history of the times, 
that, for more than ten years. Democratic papers and Demo- 
cratic orators have everywhere, and upon every occasion, 
raised their warning voice ao;ainst a sectional oro-anization. 
For myself, I know that in more than a hundred speeches, 
almost with tears in my eyes, I have repeated the warnings 
and pleadings of Washington and the fathers, for the preser- 
vation of the Union. My friends, it was no uncommon thing, 
two years ago, to hear myself called, by way of derision, 'a 
Union Savior.' .... During the late Presidential canvass, 
so earnest were my pleadings for the Union, that it was a 
common occurrence, if I happened to be making a speech, to 
hear the prominent Republicans remark, as they passed, wag- 
ging their heads, ' Oh ! it 's only Dr. Olds, saving the Union.' 
.... I call God to witness here to-day, in the presence of 
the Republicans, that if I, by sacrificing myself, could restore 
this Union to what it was before the Abolitionists destroyed 
it, I would lay myself upon the altar a sacrifice, and give the 
very last drop of my heart's blood to repair the evils Aboli- 
tionism has brought upon my ruined country I do 

not stand here to-day for the purpose of justifying the South 
in seceding from the Union. No man condemns secession 
more severely than I do. In my judgment it was folly — 
consummate folly — for the South to inaugurate such a measure. 
The election of Mr. Lincoln was no justification for them to 
destroy the Government. They should have sought redress 

in the Union, and not by attempting to destroy it 

But, most unfortunately for us, and for the whole country, 
there were men at the South who, though hating Abolition- 
ism, yet played into the hands of that party, and aided them 
in all their mad efi:brts to break down the Democratic party, 



588 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

the only Union party of the country These men 

broke up the Charleston Conv^ention expressly to aid the 
Abolitionists of the JSTorth in electing a sectional President, 
that they might thereby have an excuse for seceding from 
the Union. For such men I have no sympathy. They have 
' sown the wind,' and in the end will ' reap the whirlwind.'" 

No charges w^ere ever preferred against Dr. Olds. Some 
of the Republican papers, in order to excuse the Administra- 
tion, charged that, in his Berne Township speech, made on 
the 2Gth of July, 1862, he had discouraged enlistments and 
counselled resistance to the draft. In order to show the 
untruthfulness of all such charges, we quote verbatim all that 
Dr. Olds said on either subject : 

" Mr. Chairman, young men are permitted to dream dreams, 
and old men to see visions. And as I am an old man, my 
Republican friends will permit me to have a vision, and not 
call it treason. In my vision I see the ballot-boxes of this 
country baptized in blood. Passed events, I acknowledge, 
have much to do in producing this vision. At the election in 
our sister State of Maryland, less than a year since, the hust- 
ings were surrounded by an armed soldiery, and Democratic 
voters were driven from the polls at the point of the bayonet. 
In Missouri, Democratic candidates, by force of arms, have 
been taken oft' the stump to be incarcerated in Military Bas- 
tiles. In Kentucky, a few days since, a Democrat, for having 
the temerity to run, as an independent candidate, against a 
so-called Union man, had his tickets seized and destroyed by 
the Provost Marshal. These things are indications of what 
we may expect in Ohio. What mean these military com- 
mittees in every county in your State? Are they not de- 
signed expressly to overawe the Democracy ? Are they not 
to be used as military appliances to control the ballot-box? 

"But, Mr. Chairman, my vision stops not here. I see 
other dark clouds hanging over us. I see a Government 
recruiting-officer before me. We find them in every nook 
and corner of our country. I say to him, that if this war 
ceases to be a war for the suppression of the rebellion ; if it 



EDSON B. OLDS. 589 

is no longer to be prosecuted for the maintenance of ' the 
Constitution as it z.s,' and the restoration of ' the Union as it 
ivas^' and is to become an Abolition war ; if your battle-cry, 
henceforth, is to be, ' Throw down your arms, you damned rebels, 
and free your negroes,' Democrats will refuse to volunteer ; 
and, in order to raise these six hundred thousand soldiers, 
the Administration will be driven to the draft. Your Gov- 
ernor has, by proclamation, told us that he will use his in- 
fluence to screen from draft all such persons as shall subscribe 
liberally in money toward the bounty to be paid to volunteers. 
"What, let me inquire, does this language of your Governor 
mean? Has he the power to draft whomsoever he pleases? 
If so, God help us, poor Democrats. This draft, we know, 
will be in the hands of the Republicans. This declaration 
of the Governor foreshadows unfairness. The supposition is 
a natural one, that the Governor would like to send the 
Democrats to the war, so as to keep them away from the 
polls, and retain Republicans at home, in order to save their 
votes for the party. With this declaration of the Governor 
sounding in our ears, may we not expect to be wofully 
cheated in case the draft takes place? 

" In my vision, I see what must be the inevitable conse- 
quences of a fraudulent draft. Every man who feels himself 
cheated, avIio feels that he has been unfairly dealt b}- in this 
draft, will refuse to be mustered into service, and such refusal 
will cause the shedding of blood ; a file of soldiers will be 
sent for him, and he will resist even at the point of the bay- 
onet. If the President wishes to avoid such fearful results ; 
if he wishes to avoid bringing civil war and bloodshed into 
our peaceful cities and villages, let him make some proclama- 
tion, by which we may know that this war is not prosecuted 
for the abolition of slavery, and this draft will become un- 
necessary. 

" Let him proclaim that this war, in the future, will be 
prosecuted for the sole object of putting down the rebellion, 
for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union, and 



590 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

he will find strong arms and willing hearts ready to rally 
round the old Star-spangled Banner. 

" Let him do this, and this same old Democratic party, 
that the Republicans are denouncing as disimionists and 
secessionists — this same old Democratic party, that rallied 
around his standard, so long as they believed him devoted to 
the Union and the Constitution — will again fill the ranks of 
his army to overfiowing ; they wall, as heretofore, more than 
count life for life, bone for bone, and blood for blood, with 
the Republicans, upon all 3'Our battle-fields." 

On the 12th of August, 1862, after ten o'clock at night. 
Dr. Olds' house was forcibly entered by three Government 
ruffians, who, with violence, seized his person, and, holding 
a revolver at his head, demanded his surrender. During the 
time they were making their rejieated and violent elforts to 
burst open his door, they gave no intimation that they were 
Government oificers, or that they had any authority for his 
arrest. They came like assassins and robbers, they behaved 
as such, and had he not been informed, by the boastings of 
certain Republicans, that affidavits, designed to cause his 
arrest, had been forwarded to the AVar Department, he 
should, most undoubtedly, have considered them such. 
When, after his capture, he demanded to know by what 
authority they had thus rudely broken into his room and 
seized his person, they harshly informed him that they were 
acting under authority of the War Department. He then 
demanded to be shown their warrant. They informed him 
that he had no right to make such a demand ; that the order 
which they held was for their protection, and not for his 
gratification. They, however, permitted him to examine it. 
The document was signed by C. P^Wolcott, Assistant Secre- 
tary of War, and was dated, " Washington City, August 2, 
18(32." It was directed to W. II. Scott, and commissioned him 
to take with him one assistant, and proceed to Lancaster, 
Ohio, and arrest Edson B. Olds, convey him to 'Sew York, 
and deliver him to the commanding officer at Fort Lafayette ; 
and that, if he were resisted in the execution of the order, he 



EDSON B. OLDS. 591 

was directed to call upon Governor Tod. of Ohio, for such 
assistance as might be necessary. 

The order contained no intimation of the " nature and 
cause " of the accusation against him ; indeed, it charged him 
with the commission of no offence whatever, and when he 
demanded of his captors to know what were the charges 
against him, they replied that they did not know. These 
Government ruffians were further directed to ^'-peaceably''' 
arrest him. Yet with violence they burst open the door of 
his room, and, with revolver in hand, they made the arrest. 

Thus was he dragged from a sick-bed to which he had 
been confined by an attack of acute dysentery. In this 
condition, he was hurried into a carriage, and during the 
remainder of the night, driven to Columbus, and just at 
daylight, placed on the cars and conveyed, in his sick and 
exhausted condition, without a moment's delay, to ISTew 
York city. 

Thence he was taken to Fort Lafaj^ette, where he was 
ordered to remove his clothing, that his person might be 
searched. To make, if possible, such an insult still greater 
to an American citizen, he was taken into a side room, where 
around him lay, in heaps, balls with chains, and handcuffs. 
"With such surroundings, he was stripped and searched, his 
watch, money, spectacles, shaving apparatus, and even medi- 
cines were taken from him. He was not permitted to retain 
even an old newspaper, or a piece of paper of any kind. After 
this degrading operation had been performed, and before he 
was conducted from the Commandant's room to his dungeon, 
all the other prisoners about the Fort were locked in their 
rooms, that he might not be seen and recognized, lest, perad- 
venture, information might be given to his friends of the 
cruelties about to be inflicted upon him. One of the prisoners 
having learned, a few days afterward, through the medium 
of a newspaper, who the mysterious stranger was, wrote to 
a friend, " that Dr. Olds, of Ohio, had been brought to Fort 
Lafayette and placed in solitary confinement." His letter 
was returned to him by the Commandant, who required him 



592 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

to strike out that part of it AA'Licli referred to the case of 
Dr. Olds. 

Dr. Olds was now placed in a dungeon. This dungeon was 
on a level with the ground, and had a brick pavement or floor 
over about the half of it. The dampness was so great that, 
in a very short time, a mould would gather on any article 
left upon the floor. His bed consisted of an iron stretcher, 
with a thin husk mattress upon it, so thin, indeed, that he 
could feel every iron slat the moment he lay down upon it. 
The brick floor, with all its dampness, would have been far 
more comfortable than this bed, had it not been for the rats 
and other vermin that infested the room. The only furniture 
in his room, beside the bed, w^as a broken table and a chair. 
His daily fare consisted of Government bread, an old rusty 
tin of " Lincoln coffee," and a slice of boiled salt pork, with 
an onion, occasionally, as an anti-scorbutic. His only drink, 
except the nasty coffee, was rain-water. He was not furnish- 
ed with a towel, nor could he persuade his keepers to give 
him one. Neither could he induce his jailers to let him have 
a candle during the long, tedious nights of his illness. No 
entreaty could procure him the return of the medicines which 
had been taken from him when searched. To relieve his suf- 
ferings, again and again he begged for a small piece of opium, 
which had been taken from his pocket with the other medi- 
cine, but all in vain. After ten days of such treatment and 
suffering, late one night, the sergeant of the guard brought 
him some medicine, which, he informed the Doctor, the sur- 
geon of Fort Hamilton had sent him. This surgeon knew 
nothing about his case, never having seen him, or been in- 
formed by him of his condition. With no light in his cell, 
and no one to counsel him, the reader can well understand 
why he would not take the medicine. 

He did not know but that this jailer's design was to poison 
him. Their previous treatment justified such an opinion. 
He determined that if he was to die in Fort Lafayette, it 
should be a natural death, unless tried by a drum-head court- 
martial and shot. This he felt thoy had as much right to 



EDSON B. OLDS. 593 

ilo as to arrest and imprison him. By such treatment, hh 
combativeness was aroused, and this, no doubt, contributed 
much toward saving his life, for, as he says : " I was too mad 
to die." About this time his son, hearing where he was, vis- 
ited him ; and wVio will be surprised that he found his father 
" emaciated and careworn ? " If anything could have added 
to the cruelty inflicted upon him, during the long days and 
nights of his sickness and suffering, it was the refusal of the 
Commandant to allow him the use of a Bible. Day after day 
he begged the sergeant to procure one for him. His constant 
answer was, " The commanding officer says you shan't have 
one." The Doctor begged him to remind the officer that they 
lived in a Christian, and not a heathen land — that he was an 
American citizen, and not a condemned felon. Still the 
answer was, " The commanding officer says you shan't have 
one, and you need not ask any more ; " and it was not until 
after sixteen days of such more than heathenish treatment, 
that Colonel Burke, of Fort Hamilton, upon the importunity 
of his son, sent an order to the Commandant at Fort Lafay- 
ette to let him have a Bible. 

It was on the sixteenth day of his lonely imprisonment, 
that his son, upon an order of the Secretary of "War, was 
permitted to see him, not in his lonely cell, but in the Com- 
mandant's room and presence. It was with much difficult}'' 
that, even at that time, he was able to walk from his cell to 
the officers' room. This was the first time during his im- 
prisonment that he had been able to obtain an interview 
with the Commandant. In his weekly inspection of the 
prisoners, he had carefully avoided the Doctor's dungeon, 
K'o kindly message of inquiry as to his wants and condition 
had ever been made. Dr. Olds seized upon that opportunity 
to let him know that he was a human being, and as such 
entitled to human treatment, that such a thing as refusing a 
prisoner a Bible was unknown in any civilized community. 
His answer to the prisoner was, that he was not permitted, 
under his orders, to let him have one. 

He had great reason to be thankful that his son's visit 
.38 



594: AMERICAN BASTILE. 

gave liim an opportunity to see tlie Commandant ; for, from 
that time, altliough lie was kept in solitary confinement, his 
condition was much more comfortable : a better mattress 
was put upon his bed, occasionally a raw onion or tomato 
was added to his dinner, and on two occasions some pickled 
beets were sent him from the cook-room. 

His son was compelled to visit Washington, to obtain 
from the Secretary of War an order granting him permission 
to see him, before he could be admitted to the Fort. As 
soon as he learned how he had been treated, he returned im- 
mediatel}' to Washington, and, with the assistance of a very 
kind friend, procured an order from Secretary Stanton for 
his release from solitary confinement, and that he should 
have all the privileges accorded to the other prisoners. And 
thus, after ticenty-tico days of worse than heathenish treat- 
ment, his dungeon door was unlocked, and he was permitted 
to hold intercourse with his fellow-prisoners. 

After Dr. Olds' release from solitary confinement, he was 
put in a casemate with eleven others, making twelve persons 
in a room measuring fifteen by twenty-five feet. In this 
room they slept, cooked, and ate. In it were their beds, 
chairs, tables, trunks, cooking-ntensils, table-furniture, etc. 
They were locked in their room at sunset, and unlocked 
again at sunrise. Through the day they were permitted to 
stand or sit in front of their cell, inside the Fort. They had, 
morning and evening, what was called a "walking hour." 
This hour was sometimes ten, and sometimes thirty minutes 
long, just as it suited the caprice or whim of the sergeant. 
The walking ground was inside the Fort. Dr. Olds says, " We 
were permitted to walk backward and forward across the 
area of the Fort, which was perhaps a little larger than the 
City Hall at Columbus, Ohio. We were permitted, by the 
commanding oflicer, to supply and cook our own food. We 
were compelled to use rain-water for all purposes, cooking, 
washing, and drinking. Each and every time that we drew any 
from the cistern, we were required to obtain permission from 
the sergeant of the guard. This, like all cistern water, was 



EDSON B. OLDS. 595 

sometimes quite good, and at other times very offensive. Mr. 
Childs, one of my mess, informed me that at one time, during 
the latter part of the winter of 1862, in consequence of the 
accumulation of ice in the gutters, all the washings and 
scourings from the soldiers' quarters ran into the cistern, out 
of which the prisoners were compelled to draw the water 
they used ; that the water became so filthy that they had to 
boil and skim it before using it ; and that notwithstanding 
they had three other cisterns inside the Fort, full of com- 
paratively clean water, the commanding officer compelled 
them to use this." We here give an incident that came to 
the knowledge of Dr. Olds during his captivity, which is so 
inhuman and monstrous as almost to challenge belief. 

There were at one time confined in one of the rooms of 
what is called the Battery, some thirty prisoners. One of 
these poor fellows was prostrated with sickness, and near 
unto death. ISTight came on, and it was thought that the 
poor fellow could not live until morning. The prisoners con- 
fined in the room of the dying man, begged that for one 
night, at least, they might be permitted to have a light in 
their prison ; and incredible as it may seem, this requ,est was 
refused ; and in this boasted land of liberty, civilization, and 
Christianity, these prisoners w^ere locked up in their dark 
prison-house, with the dying man. During that long, dark 
night, they could hear his dying moans ; louder and louder 
grew the death-rattle, until near morning, when all became 
still and hushed ; and when the light of daj^ broke in upon 
that loathsome dungeon, death had done its work. This 
poor victim of President Lincoln's despotism had ceased to 
live ; his released spirit had gone to that world where " the 
wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." 

Several times during the last three weeks of Doctor Olds' 
confinement, he was ofiered his liberty upon condition that 
he would " take the oath," which he persistently refused, not 
because he was, or intended to be disloyal, but because he 
would not submit to be discharged in any manner by which 
his enemies could, even by implication, infer that he acknowl- 



596 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

edged himself rightfully charged with any offence against 
the Government. 

After four months' imprisonment in Fort Lafayette, twenty- 
two days of which were spent in solitary confinement^ and 
without having any charges made against him, or any trial, 
Dr. Olds, on the 12th of December, 1862, was set at liberty, 
and on the 20th of the same month, reached his home in 
Lancaster, Ohio. 

From the Lancaster *■ Eagle." 

" Olds' reception on last Saturday is unparalleled in num- 
bers and enthusiasm. Lancaster never witnessed such an out- 
pouring of the people. Cripples would have, stood no chance 
at all in the unbroken and tremendous rush and jam. The 
first seen of Olds after the train stopped at the Lancaster 
depot, was upon the shoulders and heads of the crowding 
and solid mass of Democrats. "We estimate the crowd at 
twelve thousand. The surrounding counties were all credit- 
ably represented. An extra train from Circleville brought 
about one hundred sound, cheering Democrats, with a brass 
band ! We have not space to particularize and comment as 
we desire. The eloquent reception speech of Mr. Martin, and 
the matter-of-fact, though eloquent remarks of Dr. Olds, pub- 
lished below, we know will be read and pondered by all. 

C. D. Martin's Reception Speech. 

" Dr. Olds : I have been commissioned by the Democracy 
of this county to perform the grateful and pleasing task of 
bidding you a formal welcome to your home, your friends, 
and your constituents It is the spontaneous and gen- 
erous greeting with which a magnanimous people welcome 
the deliverance of their friend and representative from the 
odious thraldom of a political Bastile. It is, sir, the token 
and memorial of the fixed and unalterable determination of 
the sovereign people that such insuft'erable wrongs shall not 
be perpetrated with impunity. 

" On the 12th of August last, at the midnight hour, the 



EDSON B. OLDS. 597 

privacy of your home was invaded — meanly and stealthily 
invaded by armed men — your chamber was broken into, and 
yourself, an old man of threescore and ten, wholly unarmed 
and unprotected, dragged from a bed of sickness, and forcibly 
and secretly abducted. You were transported in the same 
secret and violent manner from your home and friends, from 
your county and State, and confined within the gloomy 
walls of a Military Fortress, whose heavy buttresses and 
frowning battlements look out on the deep blue waters. 

" You were detained a prisoner for four weary months. 
We have heard somewhat ' the secrets of your prison-house.' 
How, for twenty-two days you were kept in solitary confine- 
ment in a dark, gloomy, and ill-ventilated casemate. How 
3^ou were completely excluded from the world and all knowl- 
edge of home, friends, and country. How every personal 
comfort was denied you. And you were permitted to behold 
no human count-enance but the grim visage of your jailer. 
How, in short, those days of imprisonment were imbittered 
by the studied arts of refined cruelty. Well you may exclaimy 
in the immortal language of th« Prisoner of Chillon, 

'My limbs are bowed, though not with toil, 
But rusted with a vile repose, 
For they have been a dungeon's spoil; 

And mine have been the fate of those 
For whom the goodly earth and air 
Are banned and barr-ed — forbidden fare.' 

" Posterity will read with wonder and sham-e the etorj^ of 
3'our persecution. Even the hardened jailer was touched 
with compassion at your sufierings ; for when remonstrated 
with by your son, who had found his way to your prison 
door, he declared against the iniquities he was compelled to 
practise by his superiors at Washington. 

" You were thus arrested, thus abducted, thus imprisoned, 
without law, and against law, and in contempt even of the 
forms of law. Yon have suttered execution of sentence — 
you have suffered an inhuman and barbarous punishment, 



598 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

but witlioat trial, without an opportunity of defence, and 
without judgment A secret and insidious political in- 
former has been esteemed the most odious of charactei'S. lie 
is held in utter detestation by all honorable men. lie stabs 
in the dark. Personal malignity and private gain are his 
only motives. Falsehood and detraction are the instruments 
he employs. In a free country, where the laws are respected 
and judicially administered, he has no existence. His vulture 
occupation prospers only in a despotism, where arbitrary ar- 
rests and secret inquisitions obtain. 

" In the issue joined between you and the secret informer, 
the people have rendered their verdict. Your neighbors, your 
fellow-citizens, that public to whom your alleged disloyal 
speeches were made, have spoken. When recently an atHic- 
tive dispensation of Providence removed from its earthly 
home their representative in the State Legislature, the 
gifted, lamented Jeffries, they sought you out in the gloom 
©f the prison, and conferred upon you by their unbought and 
unsolicited suii'rages, the high honor of that representative 
trust. This, sir, is a proud vindication of your loyalty, and 
a complete refutation of the calumny laid to your charge. . . . 
Peace and Union are the highest aspirations of a Democratic 
heart — a peace durable and beneticent, and a Union con- 
served by wise constitutional enactments against the assaults 
of sectional fanaticism. Wishing you much happiness and 
Long life, I again, in the name of these lion-hearted Demo- 
crats, bid you welcome, thrice v;elcome, to your home, friends, 
and constituents^" 

Dr. Olds' Reply. 
"Ma. Martin : I thank you, and, through you, all this vast 
multitude of my friends and fellow-citizens, for this most 
cordial reception upon my return from imprisonment. I do 
not misunderstand the joy that now warms your hearts and 
beams upon your countenances. It is not merely that a fel- 
low-citizen is returning to the society of his friends and the 
bosom of his family. It is something deeper and broader 



EDSON B. OLDS. 599 

than tins. It is because, in my restoration to liberty, you 
have a quasi guarantee that the reign of terror in this coun- 
try is coming to an end, and that the keys of the American 
Bastiles are being, by the omnipotent voice of the people, 
wrested from the hands of the Jacobins now in power, and 
held up to the gaze of the Dantons, Murats, and Robespierres 
of the Administration, as a warning to them of their approach- 
ing doom. 

" You rejoice, because, in my restoration, you have made 
an advance toward the re-establishment of constitutional lib- 
erty ; you rejoice, because, in my release, you feel renewed 
confidence in your own freedom ; you rejoice, because you 
feel, once more, secure in your persons, your houses, and your 
property ; you rejoice, because, in my release, you have a 
guarantee that you, yourselves, will no longer be subject to 
the worse than Star-Chamher despotism ; you rejoice, my 
friends, because you expect, on this occasion, to hear from 
one in whom you have confidence, one who knows, by per- 
sonal experience, some of the horrors seen and felt in the 
secret chambers of the American Inquisition 

" Daniel Webster said : ' The first object of a free -people is the 
l^reservation of their liberty ; and liberty is to be preserved by 
maintaining constitutional restraints and just divisions of 

political power All republics, all governments of" law, 

must impose numerous limitations and qualifications of 
authority, and give many positive and many qualified rights. 
In other words, they must be subject to rule and regulation. 
This is the very essence of free political institutions. 

" ' The spirit of liberty is, indeed, a bold and fearless 
spirit ; but it is also a sharp-sighted spirit ; it is a cautious, 
sagacious, discriminating, far-seeing intelligence ; it is jealous 
of encroachments, jealous of power, jealous of man. It de- 
mands checks ; it seeks for guards ; it insists upon securities ; 
it intrenches itself behind strong defences, and fortifies itself, 
with all possible care, against the assaults of ambition and 
passion. It does not trust the amiable weaknesses of human 
nature ; and, therefore, ^yill not permit power to overtop its 



600 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

prescribed limits, though benevolence, good intent, and patri- 
otic jiurpose come along with it. Neither does it satisfy it- 
self with flashy and temjiorary resistance to its legal author- 
ity. Far otherAvise. It seeks for duration and permanency. 
It looks before and after ; and, building upon the experience 
of ages that are passed, it labors diligently for the benefit of 
ages that are to come. This is the nature of constitutional 
liberty ; and this is our liberty, if we will rightfully under- 
stand, and preserve it.' . . . . 

" The Constitution, in the fourth article, expressly forbids the 
arl:»itrary arrest and imprisonment of the citizen. Washington 
thought that, in the original Constitution, 'more checks and 
l)arriers against the introduction of tyranny were to be found 
than in any government before instituted among mortals.' 
But our fathers were not satisfied with the protection against 
tyranny and arbitrary arrests to be found in the original Con- 
stitution. So fearful were they that, under some great emer- 
gency, this sacred chart of our liberties might be abused, 
under the plea of ' iiecessitj/,' that, almost immediately after 
its adoption, they proposed, and the States ratified, several 
amendments, all designed to still further prevent Executive 
encroachments, and protect the rights and liberties of the 
citizen. The first of these amendments provides that ' Con- 
gress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or 
the press.' 

" The fourth amendment says : ' The right of the people to 
be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and eiiects, against 
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and 
no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported 
by oath or aflirmation, and particularly describing the place 
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.' 

" The fifth amendment says : ' N^o person shall be held to 
answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on 
a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases 
arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in 
actual service, in time of war or public danger ; nor shall 
any person be subject for the same oftence to be twice put 



EDSON B. OLDS. 601 

in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled, in any- 
criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be de- 
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of 
law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use with- 
out just compensation.' .... 

"Such are some of the safeguards thrown around the citizen 
by that Constitution which was devised by tlje wisdom of our 
fathers. They are all in full force to-day. They are as much 
binding upon the President of the United States and the 
Governor of Ohio as upon the humblest citizen — nay, more, 
they ought to be doubly binding upon Abraham Lincoln and 
David Tod, for they are bound by their oaths of office to sup- 
port and maintain this sacred instrument. 

" How have these high functionaries kept their solemn 
oath? Have they maintained the freedom of speech and 
of the press ? 

" Have they ' held inviolate the right of the people to be 
secure in their persons, houses, and eliects, against unreason- 
able searches and seizures' ? 

" Have they deprived no person of liberty without due pro- 
cess of law ? 

" Have they given all persons whom they have caused to be 
arrested, ' a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury ' ? 

" Have they transported no person whom they have caused 
to be arrested, ' out of the State and district wherein the 
offence was committed ' ? 

" Have they informed all persons whom they have caused 
to be arrested, ' of the nature and cause of the accusation 
against them ' ? 

" Have they caused the persons whom they have arrested, 
' to be confronted with the witnesses against them ' ? 

" Have they given ' the assistance of counsel for their de- 
fence ' ? 

" Have they ' inflicted upon them no cruel and unusual 
punishment ' ? 

" I stand here to-day as a living witness, and I will stand 
at the bar of God, to add my testimony to that of my fellow- 



G02 A M E E I C A X B A S T I L E. 

prisoners, that, notwithstanding their solemn oaths, they 
huve viouitt?d evert one of the^e constitutional provisions. 

" In vioUition of tlie Constitution, Lincoln and Tod had 
me arrested for using the freedom of speech. 

" In violation of the Constitution, they caused my house 
to he forcihly entered. 

" In viohition. of the Constitution, they caused my papere 
to be searched. 

" In viohition of the Constitution, they caused my person 
to be seized by armed ruthans. 

*' In violation of the Constitution, they deprived me of 
liberty without due process of law. 

" In viohition of the Constitution, they held me to answer 
infamous accusations, without presentment or indictment by 
a grand jury. 

" In violation of tlie Constitution, they denied me the right 
of a speedy and public trial by au impartial jury. 

" In violation of the Constitution, they have carried me 
cut of the State and district in wliich my alleged otieuce was 
committed. 

'• In violation of the Constitution, they have refused to 
inform me of the nature and cause of the accusation against 
me. 

" In viohition of the Constitution, they have never con- 
fronted me with the witnesses against me, 

V In violation of the Constitution, they have not permitted 
me to have counsel for my defence. On the contrary, the 
Secretary of Stat<? directed the Commandant of Fort Lafay- 
ette to road to the prisoners an order from the State Depart- 
ment, in these words : ' That the Geneml Government will 
not recognize any one as an attorney for political prisoners, 
and will look with distrust upon all applications for release 
through such channels, and that such applications will be 
regarded as additional reasons for declining to release such 
j>ei"sons.' Could there be. by any possibility, a more diivct 
and detiant disregard of the* Constitution than this order? 

" And in violation of the Constitution, and even without so 



EDSON B. OLDS. 603 

much as a mock trial, they have inflicted upon me cruel and 
unusual punishment 

" There stands to-day, just inside the sallyport of Fort 
Lafayette, a brass six-pounder, loaded with a bomb. This 
cannon was planted in that position at the time when it was 
expected that the Sheriif of ISTew York would attempt to 
execute a writ of habeas corpus upon the commander of the 
Fort. He says that he has practised with it until he has ob- 
tained the exact position, so that a bomb fired from it would 
explode in the sallyport ; he boasts that with a single bomb 
he could utterly destroy the Sheriflt' with his whole posse comi- 
tatus ; and in derision of this writ, he has nicknamed this 
cannon ^ his habeas coryus.^ .... 

"Upon '■ lettres dc cachet,' a term unknown to the laws and 
Constitution of this country — a term borrowed from the 
despotism of the dark ages — a process every letter of which 
was so rank with the smell of blood, that even the Jacobins 
of France discarded it — I was arrested. And as if there 
were not infamy enough in such a process, the Administra- 
tion deepens its infamy by adopting the long-discarded prac- 
tice of the ^Spanish Inquisition, which caused its victims to 
be arrested under cover of night 

"My friends, when all the barriers of constitutional liberty 
are broken down ; when the habeas corpus is set aside ; when 
the tribunals in which, heretofore, the oppressed have found 
redress for lawless violence, are resisted and set at nought 
with arrogance and contempt ; when loyal, law-abiding citi- 
zens are imprisoned at the discretion of some minion of a 
Cabinet otficer, or on the '/ order the arrest of Dr. Olds,' of 
David Tod ; when the sacred right of trial by jury is set 
aside for military commissions — the inquiry of what are we 
to expect next ? becomes one of momentous interest to every 
citizen. It is a question which comes home alike to Repub- 
licans and Democrats. 

" During the dreadful days of the French Revolution, 
party followed party with such rapidity, that it seemed more 
like a panorama upon the stage than a living and passing 



604 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

drama. Those men who to-day consigned their victims to 
the Bastile, or ordered them to the guillotine, were, on the 
morrow, by these revolutions of party, themselves the occu- 
pants of cells in the Bastiles, or their headless trunks lay 

bleeding beneath the axe of the guillotine Haman, 

while basking in the king's favor, raised a gallows Hfty 
cubits high, upon which to hang Mordecai, the Jew ; but alas, 
poor Haman! on the morrow he was hanging from his own 
gallows 

" The future historian of our country will not only be com- 
pelled to darken his pages with Lincoln's imitations of the 
reign of terror in France, but he will be compelled to record 
also his adoption of the dogmas, the maxims, and the prac- 
tices of the Spanish Inquisition 

" ISTot in Austria, not in Spain, not in JSTaples, but in free 
America — not in the dark ages of superstition and despot- 
ism, but in the nineteenth century — not by an Inquisitor- 
General, but by Abraham Lincoln, all the outrages of the 
Inquisition, so graphically and truthfully described by the 
historian Prescott, have been practised upon the victims of 
this Administration, in these Military Bastiles. And now, 
my friends, what is the plea for all this despotism ? 

" It is the plea used by tyrants and despots — the plea of 
'necessity.' Let Mr. Lincoln and the people both be admon- 
ished in time ; history furnishes us with no example in which 
such despotic power, no matter what the emergency may 
have been which caused it to be used, has been voluntarily 
relinquished. It has always ended either in the complete 
subjugation of the people, or the overthrow and death of the 
tyrant who fails in maintaining it 

" And in conclusion, my friends, permit me to say, that 
although I would hot ' take the oath,' attempted again and 
again to be forced upon me by ]\Ir. Lincoln, as a condition 
of my release, yet, when in two weeks from this time, I take 
my seat as your representative in the Legislature, I shall 
most cheerfully take the oath of allegiance to both the Con- 
stitution of the United States and the Constitution of the 



EDSON B. OLDS. 605 

State of Oliio. That oath, notwithstanding the example of 
both Lincohi and Tod to the contrary, I shall maintain invi- 
olate. All those sacred guarantees which both these consti- 
tutions throw around you, to protect you in your inalienable 
rights, I will endeavor to enforce to the utmost of my poor 
ability, in defiance of the despotism of both the President 
and the Governor, although by so doing, I may be again 
returned to my lonely cell in Fort Lafayette. 

" Again, my friends, for this most extraordinary reception 
— for this most cordial greeting, I tender you my heartfelt 
thanks." 



JOIII!^ E. ROBII^SOK 

ON the 20tli of September, 1864, Mr. John E. Robinson, a 
resident of Philadelphia, was arrested on the streets of 
the city of Sandusky, Ohio, at which place he was then 
sojourning. He had been in bad health for some time pre- 
viously, and in August, at the solicitation of his father, de- 
termined to make a tour of the Northern States. He had 
been but a short time in Sandusky when his arrest took 
place. As he was returning from a funeral service, he was 
accosted by an officer with a squad of marines, from the 
United States gunboat Michigan, then lying in the offing of 
Sandusky Bay, a body of water about twenty miles long by 
five or six wide, making inland from Lake Erie. The officer, 
without further parlance, arrested and proceeded to convey 
him on board the gunboat. 

To Mr. Robinson's inquirj^ as to the cause of his arrest, 
he was informed by the officer that he would be made ac- 
quainted with it on his arrival on the gunboat. He was 
hurried forward through the crowd toward the landing, 
whence he was taken on board the vessel and confined. The 
streets through which he passed were crowded with people, 
many of whom threatened him with personal violence. The 
cries from the crowd of " Hang him," " Bring a rope," " Lynch 
him," etc., added to personal abuse and maledictions, were 
calculated to appal the stoutest heart. When the prisoner 
arrived on board the gunboat, he was taken into the presence 
of the Captain, who, surrounded by his subordinate officers, 
closely questioned him. At the close of the examination he 
was told that he would be detained, and was consigned to a 
small state-room, where he was confined for five days. From 
the purport of the examination, Mr. R. concluded that he 

G06 



JOHN E. EOBINSON". 607 

was arrested on suspicion of having been concerned in the 
" Lake Erie raid," although he was not openly charged with 
any oifence. On the 25th, he was removed from the state- 
room, and conveyed to Johnson's Island, once known as 
"the Beautiful Isle of the Lake," but more recently familiar 
to the world as the place where Confederate prisoners of 
war were confined. Here Mr. R. was placed in a tent, and 
guarded day and night by two sentinels, the one pacing in 
front, and the other in the rear of his tent. He was for- 
bidden to converse with any person except the command- 
ing otScer or the ofhcer of the day. Books and newspapers 
were denied him, and he was prohibited writing more than 
one page of common note-paper once a week. On the 29th, 
after four days of incarceration in the tent, he was taken to 
Cleveland, and placed among thieves, pickpockets, burglars, 
and negroes, in the County Jail. Here he remained until 
the 8th of October, when he was taken from the jail, hand- 
cuffed^ and marched through the streets of Cleveland, and 
again transported to Johnson's Island, and assigned his old 
quarters in the tent. His food, although not good, was com- 
paratively better than his bed. Accustomed to the luxury 
of a good bed, and all the surrounding comforts of home, 
and being in delicate health, he soon began to break down 
from the ill effects experienced from lying on the ground. 
He had no mattress, and but one old blanket, so narrow that 
it would not cover his entire person. This he used to lie 
upon, to protect his person from the damp ground. In his 
misery he many times begged for some straw or hay to lie 
upon, which was often promised him, and as often forgotten. 
The chilly winds admonished him of the approach of winter, 
and tended to increase the horrors of his situation. Alone, 
illy clad, sick, and in prison, without any direct charge 
having been preferred, without counsel, and denied a trial, 
it seemed as if he had been taken there to perish. 

"While in this condition he was given a small sheet-iron 
stove, such as are used in tents. To keep the tent comfort- 
able required him to keep the fire burning briskly. This 



608 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

was possible during the day, but at " taps," he was compelled 
to let the fire go out, as the opening of the stove-door to put 
fuel on the fire, caused the light to flash out into the camp, 
which produced from the sentinel the peremptory order of 
" put out that fire." This order, of course, had to be obeyed, 
and during the remainder of the night the prisoner sat and 
shivered with cold, or walked a few steps backward and for- 
ward in the tent, to keep up the circulation of his blood. 
This treatment continued until about the first of December, 
when a sort of shed was built. In this shed the prisoner 
was placed, but the change was far from mitigating his con- 
dition. The boards, green when worked, soon shrank from 
exposure to the sun and wind, until large crevices appeared 
on all sides. 

The wind howled and moaned round this shed, and whistled 
as it came through the cracks, upon its unhappy occupant. 
The day on which Mr. E.. was transferred from the tent to 
this shed was intensely cold, and the ground covered with 
about two feet of snow. In walking backward and forward 
through the snow, the prisoner's feet were badly frosted, the 
right one so badly, indeed, that the skin came ofi", thus inca- 
pacitating him from walking, and causing excruciating pain. 

One incident is sufiicient to show the character of the 
oflicers in charge of the Island, and their treatment of the 
prisoners. During his confinement in the tent. Colonel Hill, 
the Post Commandant, had occasion to leave the Island on 
business, and Lieutenant Colonel Palmer was left in tempo- 
rary command. During the forenoon, Mr. E. succeeded in 
borrowing, from one of the soldiers, a book with which to 
while away the long, tedious hours of his imprisonment. By 
some means, Colonel P. became acquainted with the fact, and 
immediately came to the quarters and made search for it. 
As the prisoner had no place to hide it, the object of his 
official wrath was quickly found. Palmer, in a hasty and 
supercilious manner, demanded the name of the party who had 
lent him the book, and on the prisoner's refusal to reveal it, 
ordered a sero-eant to remove from the tent the stove, blan 



JOHN E. ROBINSON. 609 

kot (?) and candle, together with his pipe and tobacco, con- 
cluding this display of authority with a tirade of personal 
abuse, threatening Mr. R. with bread and w^ater, if he did 
not divulge the name of the person from whom he had ob- 
tained the book. This threat was never carried into execu- 
tion, Mr. R. escaping it by the magnanimity of the soldier, 
who, on learning how matters stood, gave himself up. There- 
upon the articles removed were returned, and the man sent 
to the guard-house. 

Time dragged wearily on until the 25th of January, 1865, 
when Mr. Robinson was again taken to Cleveland and placed 
in the jail. Here the food was poor. The rations for breakfast 
consisted of rye coffee and hard bread. Dinner and supper 
were merged into one meal, at w^hich the prisoners were 
given a poor, thin soup, with a few pieces of tough, stringy 
beef, probably the oftal. He was detained a prisoner at this 
place until the 3d of February, when he was again returned 
to Johnson's Island, which, in the language of Whittier, 
seemed 

"The fittest earthly type of hell." 

Immediately on his arrival he was taken to his old quar- 
ters in the shed, and was much pleased to find them occu- 
pied by several gentlemen from the interior of the State of 
Ohio, who had been arrested and were detained on the charge 
of resisting the draft. They were genial, companionable 
gentlemen, and their association tended much to relieve the 
e7}7iui of prison life. Here he remained undisturbed until the 
l'2th of May, w^hen, as on former occasions, he was taken out 
of his hut to be conveyed he knew not whither. Cleveland 
was again his destination. There he was confined about 
four weeks. The first week he was imprisoned in the County 
Jail, as on previous occasions. 

It w^as now deemed a " military necessity " to separate him 
from the other prisoners, and consequently he was conveyed 
to the city lock-up, where the nights were made hideous by 
the profanity of drunken men, and the sickening, indecent 
language of the debased women, who were separated from 

39 



610 AMEBIC AN B A STILE. 

the men only b}' a narrow corridor and a fliglit of stairs, 
they being in the second tier of cells, the men occupying the 
rooms beneath them. The grated iron doors all opened on 
the same hall. Their food was given them in the manner 
of feeding swine, that is, a basket of dry bread was thrust 
through the wicket in the door, and it was at the option of 
the prisoners whether they ate it or not. The drinking 
water was obtained from a hydrant in the back part of the 
hall. The cell into which Mr. R. was thrust, contained no- 
thing but a board fastened along the wall, like a bench, upon 
which it was intended that the prisoners should sleep. It 
was void of all bedding, and swarmed with vermin. 

Disgusted with such debasing associations, Mr. E,. entered 
complaint to the United States Provost Marshal at Cleve- 
land, who, thereupon, caused him to be immediately removed 
to better apartments. He was then placed in the women's 
department of the County Jail, which was without an occu- 
pant, save a large, savage-looking gray cat, that prowled 
around at will. Watching the movements of this grimalkin 
served to pass away many otherwise weary hours. In the 
same department in which the prisoner was then confined, a 
woman had committed Suicide, about four weeks previously. 
The deed had been done by hanging herself to the grating 
under the skylight. This event was not calculated to fur- 
nish very pleasant thoughts during the hours of solitude. 
Three weeks were passed in this prison, when he was again 
transferred to Johnson's Island, and confined with the rebel 
prisoners of war, in what was known as the "Bull Pen." 

Why he was removed from the Island to Cleveland, and 
thence back to the Island so often, is a fact that he is unable 
to account for, never having been informed of the cause. 
From his advent among the " Rebs," until his removal to 
Fort Lafayette, he was doomed to suffer the gnawing pangs 
of hunger. He was much surprised, on going to draw his 
rations, and that of his messmates — they being then in a 
mess — at getting only a loaf of bread, weighing twenty-two 
ounces, and a piece of salt meat, eighteen ounces iu weight, 



JOHN E. ROBINSON. 611 

wliicli constituted the whole of a day's rations for a mess. 
The prisoners were all divided into messes, and, consequently, 
all fared alike. Mr. Robinson says : " I have often seen the 
men, returning from the prisoners' grave-yard, where they 
had been, in squads, to fix up the graves of the dead, carry- 
ing rats. I asked some of the soldiers what they did with 
them, and was much surprised when they told me they ate 
them. I have also heard it said that it was all up with any 
little dog that strayed into the prison enclosure, as he never 
came out alive." Such was the desperate strait to which 
they were reduced — a fact corroborated by other testimony 
in possession of the author, but which does not bear upon 
our narrative. Some excitement was caused, about this time, 
by the attempt made by some of the prisoners to effect their 
escape. They were all recaptured. The few who, for a while, 
did succeed in eluding the vigilance of the guards, being 
unable to leave tlie Island, were compelled by hunger to sur- 
render themselves. 

The prisoners whiled away many weary hours of their 
captivity by making fans of wood, finger-rings of gutta- 
percha, and other trinkets. 

A short time after Mr. R.'s return to the Island, an order 
came to release all the prisoners of war who would take the 
oath of allegiance. This order not applying to Mr. R., who 
was regarded as a state prisoner, but whose position was 
never definitely understood, he was placed in close confine- 
ment, to prevent his escape, while the Rebel prisoners were 
being discharged. He had for companions five incorrigible 
prisoners of war, who had refused to take the oath. 

AYhile on the Island, a number of boxes, containing clothing 
and bedding, were sent to him from friends at home, amount- 
ing, in the aggregate, to four hundred dollars, none of which 
ever reached their consignee. Whatever became of them, he 
has been unabje to ascertain, all searches having proved futile. 
He continued on the Island, after the removal of the other 
prisoners, until the following September, when, in company 
with the five Rebel prisoners who had refused to take the 



612 A3tESICA5- BA^TILE. 

oath, he was sent to Fort Lafeyette, and confined in dungeon 
!Jfo* 1^ which had previously been prepared for the reception 
of Jefferson Davis. Subsequently, he was transferred to ^o. 
3, described in the narracive of Dr. Olds. Here he remained 
until the 9th of February, 186^, when he was uncondition- 
ally released, without having: had a trial or a charge pre- 
ferred aajainst him. It was afterward alleged thac he had 
been detained as a witness, but against whom, he knew not, 
nor does he yet know. 

When his case was brought by his fi-iends to the notice of 
Presidenc Johnson, tbe latter remarked that bethought that 
he had been discharged long ajjo, as there were no charges 
on record against him. 

During his unj ust iifcarceration on Johnson's Island, and 
while he was suiiering much in bodily health, his sister visited 
Washington, solicited and obtained an interview with Secre- 
tary Stanton, and endeavored to ettect his release, and to have 
her husband, who was confined at Andersonviile, exehan^ced. 
The Honorable Secretary replied in such brutal and unfeel- 
ing terms in regar«l to both, that the lady retired in tears. 

After seventeen mouths and twenty days of incarceration, 
this gentleman was again pennifcted to enjoy the blessings of 
home, friends, and fbsbdom. 



i 



1.KXA^^DKR HARRIS, V^^^.. i^^ :» luuno vH Juniata 
-^^ County, Ponnsylvaina, and a irrjuluato vH' W:VjihinctvM\ 
C<>lio^, iu the i^^me State, AtTtor taking hi* doi^iw, ]\o n\ul 
law in the v^tHvV ot Wm. ^f. IVuidlo, Esq., of OarlUlo, Toun- 
?ylvj»nia, and bop»n tlio praotuv ot his pr\>to^ivM\ in Mit^Un, 
the county seat of Juniata, ^Vhile praotisinjr iu MitUin. ho 
aote^l as District Attorney lor some time. He su\^s^H\uently 
reiuove^i to Lj^noastor. where he now residess. He was arrestiMl 
iu the Ix^rough of York, on the ilvl of Kebruarv. ISoo, when 
there on husiness. AVhile seatcvi in one of the hotels, he 
was drawn iutv"» CvMiversjuion with two individuals, one of 
whom represeutcvi liimself as a Canadian frvMu Toivnto, 
Canada West, The eon\'ersation was s<.\m\ dii\\t<.\i to ti.e 
exeitiuij topic of the war. Ix^th individuals were in favor of 
a Yii^>l\>us pn>seciition of it by the 2sortliorn ^yvple. Mr. 
Harris s;\id to the Canadi;in gentleman: " Po you, Iving a 
C^iUiadian, favor a vigorous pn>seciition of the war?" and 
reoeivevl a reply in the athrmative. The other genrlotnau 
immediately askevl. in a somewhat hasty tone: "An^ you 
not in iavor of the war? " The reply was. - Xo. sir." Ho 
then became abusive, and rejoined with an oath, ""Why, 
G — d— it. every man should lx> in favor of this war." This 
Icti to more heated language, which endo^i in the |XM*son 
charging Mr. Harris with Wing a {secessionist. This elicitcil 
from Harris tlie ivply. "That he was not a secessionist, but 
would prefer Knng such to an Abolitionist." Hero tho dis- 
cussion ended. Harris k^ft the hotel, civssod tho snoot, and 
entereil the rrv>thonotary's othce in the Court-house, whoiv 
he remarkcii that he was apprehensive of Iving arrested, at 
the s;ime time detailiug what had j>;is^etl at the hotel. The 

613 



614 ami;eican bastile. 

officers of the Court advised him to submit quietly to arrest, 
if such should occur. He had not been ten minutes in the 
Court-house, when Hays, (one of the persons with whom he 
had been conversing,) accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Street, of 
the Presbyterian Church of York, entered the office. Mr. 
Street demanded of Harris the surrender of a letter of in- 
dorsement, which he had furnished him. 

The letter was immediately returned to him with the 
remark, " Take it, you are entitled to it, as I perceive you 
are an Abolitionist, and such indorsements I do not desire." 

The Reverend gentleman replied, " I will have you arrested 
in ten minutes," and hurried away to report to the Provost Mar- 
shal, who detailed two soldiers for his arrest. These accompa- 
nied the Reverend gentleman to the office in the Court-house, 
where he pointed out the object of his Christian charity. Mr. 
Harris was escorted to the officers' quarters on the camp- 
ground, in the outskirts of the borough. This occurred in 
the forenoon, and shortly after dinner, the prisoner was visited 
by a friend, an attorney at law, of York, and he signed a pe- 
tition for a writ of habeas corpus. 

Shortly after, the Deputy Sheriff appeared and served a writ 
issued by Judge Fisher, on Captain McGowan, returnable 
the following morning at nine o'clock. In the mean time, the 
prisoner had been brought before the Captain, and evidence 
of the language used by him, at the hotel, was given by Hays 
and others. General Schenck, commanding at Baltimore, 
was telegraphed for instructions. Schenck replied: "Send 
Harris to Baltimore." As soon as the writ of habeas corpus 
was served on Captain McGowan, inquiries again sped on the 
wires for further instructions from the satrap of the Monu- 
mental City. 

At 9 o'clock A.M., the time fixed for producing the prisoner 
in Court, the required instructions seem not to have arrived, 
and the production of the prisoner was consequently delayed, 
for reasons known only to Captain McGowan. Mr. Harris 
asked the Captain if the writ of the Court would not be 
obeyed. The reply was : "3ir. Harris^ there is a higher power 



ALEXANDER HARRIS. 615 

than Judge Fisher in this country.^' The Court convened at 
the appointed hour, but the writ not being returned, the Court 
adjourned until two o'clock, to give the Captain additional 
time to produce the prisoner, when he was again notified by 
the Deputy Sherift' of the adjournment. At two o'clock, the 
report of " the higher "power " having been received, the pris- 
oner was conducted by a lieutenant to the court-room, which 
was crowded with anxious spectators. The case was called 
by Judge Fisher, who asked the Commonwealth's counsel if 
any legal cause existed for the arrest and detention of the 
prisoner. The attorney for Captain McGowan made a brief 
statement as- to the cause of the arrest, but did not so far 
stultify his legal standing as to ofler any evidence, when he 
was conscious that none existed. The facts leading to the 
case were offered in evidence by the defence, and the standing 
and character of the prisoner given by persons present in the 
Court. After which Judge Fisher pronounced an opinion, 
enunciating the law governing cases of habeas corpus, and, at 
the conclusion, restored Mr. Harris his liberty, amid the 
plaudits and universal congratulations of the assembled au- 
dience. 



HOX. WILLIAM M. GWIX, HON. CALHOUN BEN- 
HAM, AND ROBERT J. BRENT, ESQ. 

A RBITRARY arrests and imprisonments, during the late 
-^-*- civil war, were more the ofispring of political animosi- 
ties than any service that could be rendered, thereby, for the 
good of the state. 

It was not -pro bono publico, but ^'•Iidll have vengeance " saith 
Mr. Secretary Seward. A more unscrupulous, vindictive, and 
revengeful Secretary, perhaps, never occupied a similar posi- 
tion. Lord North was a model in comparison. Jeffreys, in 
a different sphere, perhaps an equal, when sustained by arbi- 
trary power. Jeffreys and Seward — both moral cowards. 

Secretary Seward, when surrounded by power, was as cold 
and "irrepressible" as the frigid climate of Auburn in Janu- 
ary — not, indeed, 

" Sweet Auburn ! loveliest village of the plain, 
Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain; 
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid, 
And parting summer's lingering blooms delayed" — 

which the w^arm-hearted, genial Goldsmith so pathetically 
tells us about ; but the Auburn where Mr. Seward resides — 
and where he recently told the American people " great 
crimes had been committed in the name of liberty," and 
where his future reflections will be refreshed by the recollec- 
tions of the past. 

From the facts at our command, we cannot give a better 
history of the arrest, imprisonment, and release of the above- 
named gentlemen, than that by Mr. Geo. D. Prentice, of the 
^ Louisville Journal." 

Mr. Prentice says : 

616 



WILLIAM M. GWIN, AND OTHERS. 617 

" I have some peculiar reminiscences connected with Fort 
Lafayette. In 1861, three distinguished gentlemen — Hon. 
"William M. Gwin, who had served many years with dis- 
tinction in the Senate of the United States ; Hon. Calhoun 
Benham, who has been United States District Attorney in 
California ; and Mr. Brent, who had been a prominent lawyer 
in Baltimore, and was then a very prominent lawyer of Cali- 
fornia — embarked on a steamer for some point in the East. 
General Sumner was on board the same steamer. When she 
was near the Isthmus, the General made them his prisoners. 
He simply deigned to tell them that he arrested them on 
suspicion that they were intending to fight against the United 
States, a suspicion perfectly preposterous in the case of Dr. 
Gwin, who was an infirm old man of about seventy years. 
When they demanded the ground of his suspicion, he only 
answered that he entertained it, and was only responsible to 
the Federal Government ; and Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, 
ordered them', without an interview, to Fort Lafayette. 

" As one of these prisoners was my near and very dear rela- 
tive, I hastened to Washington to procure their release. I 
had written and telegraphed earnestly to the President for 
the release of Governor Morehead, JMr. Durrett, and others ; 
but when a member of my own family was a victim of 
oppression and tyranny, I felt that I should give my per- 
sonal presence to the efiort for deliverance. I arrived at the 
capital long after dark, and called immediately upon Mr. 
Lincoln. He received me with the greatest cordiality and ge- 
niality, although he gently intimated that he rather thought 
that I had been a little unjust to him. I asked him for the 
discharge of the three Fort Lafayette prisoners — Gwin, Ben- 
ham, and Brent. He inquired what were the charges against 
them. Of course, I told him that I didn't know, and sug- 
gested whether it wasn't more his business than ours to know. 
He answered, ' Well, I don't know about these things, but I 
am disposed to do what I can for you, and will give you a 
letter to Seward.' I took the letter, and called at Mr. Seward's 
ofiice the next morning. The distinguished Secretary received 



618 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

me with his accustomed amenity, hut, in regard to the matter 
in hand, talked quite dipk^nuitically. It was ahout my first 
experience of a regular diplomatist's conversation. I didn't 
much admire or understand it. Mr. Seward invited me to 
take tea with him in the evening. I did. After tea, I 
renewed my application for the release of my friends, and 
argued the matter as well as I could. lie had only this 
reply to make : ' I am considering the matter, and I shall be 
very glad to see you at tea, or breakfast, or dinner, every 
da}', and we will talk the subject over.' 

"One evening, when I had-l)een al)Out four days in Wash- 
ington, I ventured to urge my request very strongly upon 
the {Secretary, and he said: '•Call at my office to-morrow 
morning, at half-past ten o'clock, and I will give you an order 
for tlie release of your friends.' Of course, I was punctual 
to the minute. ' Fred,' said he, addressing his son, and 
Assistant Secretary, 'give Ah*. Prentice the document I di- 
rected you to make out.' The Assistant Secretary placed it 
in my hands. I read it. It was not an order for the dis- 
charge of the victims. It was only an order that I should 
have the privilege of seeing them in their prison, when I 
pleased. ' Why, Mr. Seward, this is not what you promised 
me yesterday.' 'No, it is not, but I specially desire that you 
go to New York and talk with your friends, and ascertain 
their feelings and intentions, and report to me.' I told him, 
in terms a little brief, possibly, that he certainly could not 
expect me to visit my friends in prison, and enter into a con- 
versation with them as a (lovernniont spy. ' Well,' he said, 
' do me the favor to go and see tlieni, and write to me as 
you like.' I said, 'Yes.' I went, and wrote to him every 
day as strongly as I could in favor of the release of the pris- 
oners. My first three letters were unanswered. In reply to 
the fourth, I received a dispatch saying that my friends were 
' ])aroled to AVashington for explanation.' Of course I con- 
sidered that dispatch as implying a discharge. I went im- 
mediately with Pr. Gwin's wife and daughters to Fort 
Lafayette, exhibited the order to the prisoners, and advised 



WILLIAM M. GWIN, AND OTHERS. G19 

tliem to proceed to "Washington immediately. 'Go with lis,' 
said they. I told them that it would be exceedingly incon- 
venient for me to go with them. They were apprehensive 
of deceit and treachery. ' Go with us,' said they, ' or we 
will not go.' I went with them. On arriving at Washing- 
ton, I called upon Secretary Seward in their behalf. He re- 
quired that they should either take a certain obnoxious oath, 
or be remanded to prison. I asked them what they would 
do, and they agreed that, as there were no charges against 
them, and as they had committed no crime, they would 
sooner go back to their Bastile than take any oath. All my 
appeals to the Secretary were of no avail. 

" Then my appeal was to President Lincoln. At my 
second interview with him, he said, ' I will set your friends 
free. They may go as much at large as any other citizen of 
the United States.' I asked him if he would grant them 
permission to go to Europe. He replied that none of our 
people had the right to go to Europe without passports, not 
even himself, and that therefore he could not give passports, 
but that my friends should be just as free as he or any other 
man under the Government, to go and come at pleasure. I 
requested him to put this declaration in writing. He said, 
' No, it is a very delicate subject, and Seward will be very 
mad about it. I will not touch pen to paper in regard to it. 
Tell your friends what I have told you, and tell them further, 
that I shall be glad to see them.' All of them, I believe, 
called upon him and expressed their thanks, though whether 
thanks were due, under all the circumstances, is, I think, 
quite a question. 

" In 1866, Dr. Gwin, who had not taken and could not have 
taken any part in the war, went from this country to Mexico 
for his own private purposes, whatever they were, and I have 
reason to know that they were right and proper. He went 
and took others with him to make money, but, on account 
of the miserable condition of Mexican affairs, they failed. 
Dr. Gwin came back to the United States in the full con- 
sciousness of right and the expectation of safety. He had 



620 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

done no wrong to others, and he anticipated no wrong to 
himself. But upon his arrival within the Federal lines, then 
kept up for no useful or proper purpose, he was snapped up 
on not even a pretext, and thrust into Fort Jackson, below 
New Orleans. Several of his friends were thrown into Fort 
Jackson with him. They were kept ther6 for many months. 
They were kept incarcerated, but perhaps not very badly 
used. I went to Washington to get them discharged, and 
succeeded, although in opposition to all the diplomatic efforts 
of Secretary Seward in the opposite direction. And in the 
interview on that occasion, Mr. Seward had the very intense 
coolness, fifty degrees helow zero, the point of the thermo- 
meter where the mercury freezes, to say to my face that he 
was the man who had discharged my three friends from Fort 
Lafayette, and given them all their subsequent liberty." 

Duplicity may deceive the uninitiated. It may do to im- 
pose on the more generous feelings and inclinations of the 
American people, who have been accustomed to be governed 
by sincerity and truth ; but our Government is too old, though 
young ^ to allow a Secretary, however unscrupulous, to continue 
long to trample upon the rights of the people. 

In the madness of the hour, force may overcome judgment 
and integrity, but the quietus is affixed to him who, in the 
Utopian visions of power, attempts to abridge the liberty of 
the citizen. 

Those who are his superiors in statesmanship and justice, 
will expose the nefarious design, and consign to the shades 
of a nation's forgetfulness him who, under the garb of "po- 
litical necessity " or psei/ofo-philanthropy, wishes to hold the 
reigns of political permanence at the cost of tlie liberty of 
the citizen. 

" Ye friends of truth, ye statesmen who survey 
The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay, 
'T is yours to judge how wide the limits stand 
Between a splendid and a happy land," 



nOBERT W. NEWMAIS". 

PROFESSOR ROBERT W. NEWMAN is descended from 
one of the oldest families of Virginia. His grandfather, 
Robert Newman, served with distinction in the army during 
the Revolutionary War, and was honorably discharged. His 
father, Catesby Newman, was a soldier in the American army 
during the last war with Great Britain. Robert W. Newman, 
the subject of this sketch, was born and educated in Virginia, 
and, shortly after his graduation from college, was made As- 
sociate Principal of the Winchester High School, in that 
State, wdiich position he occupied for two years, and then 
became proprietor and principal in the Winchester Female 
Seminary, in September, 1855. 

In April, 1858, he w^as elected Principal of the Harford 
Academy, the State institution, located near Baltimore, 
Maryland, which position he retained until July, 1864, when, 
owing to the deplorable condition into which the society of 
the Border States had been thrown, he yielded to the im- 
portunities of his family, and removed to New York. Deem- 
ing the unhappy state of affairs likely to last for years, he 
established himself in Peekskill, in the State of New York, 
in January, 1865, where he has since resided. 

His arrest took place at Belair, near Baltimore, in the lat- 
ter part of June, 1863, and was made by Lieutenant Offley, 
at the head of a detachment of Delaware cavalry, stationed 
in Baltimore, and commanded by the notorious Colonel Fish, 
then acting as Provost Marshal of the city. The same indi- 
vidual was afterward convicted of defrauding the Federal 
Government in contracts for supplying horses, and sent to 
the Albany State Penitentiary to expiate his crime. Prof. 
Newman's arrest was made by the Lieutenant, without o 

621 



622 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

warrant or any formula of law, other than such as he was 
invested with by the orders of Colonel Fish. 

The prisoner was forced from his house before daylight, 
taken to the County Jail, and there coniined for several days, 
without chair, table, or bed, the necessary conveniences that 
are furnished even to a culprit. He was treated as a con- 
demned felon, or even worse. After much pleading, his fam- 
ily were permitted to furnish him with a bed and provi- 
sions, while confined in the jail. Thence he was taken, under 
an escort of cavalrymen, to Havre de Grace, about twenty 
miles distant, to which place he would have been compelled 
to walk, but that the humane Offley, after much persuasion, 
permitted him to obtain a conveyance, with the express stip- 
ulation that he should pay for it himself. 

Arriving there, he was thrust into a guard-house, with 
the most abject specimens of humanity, and there compelled 
to remain two days and nights, and partake of the miserable 
rations furnished to them ; and worse than all, to sleep upon 
a floor, the stench from which was scarcely endurable. 

From Havre de Grace, he was taken by rail to Baltimore, 
and placed in close confinement in the Gilmor House, which 
was formerly used as a hotel, but then the headquarters of 
Colonel Fish. Here he was treated with the utmost rigor, 
and subjected to all the privations and petty tyrannies that 
the ingenuity of the Marshal and his officers could invent. 
Unfortunately for the honor of the Federal Army, it was 
disgraced by too many such officers as assisted Colonel Fish 
in his nefarious work. 

After the excitement incident to the Battle of Gettysburg 
had subsided, part of the prisoners were transferred to Fort 
McHenry, in the harbor, and the remaining few, including 
the Professor, were permitted to provide — at their own ex- 
pense — food and bedding, and thus in a manner to mitigate 
their sufferings. Those who have never been deprived of 
their liberty, or felt the restraints of a prison, have no ade- 
quate conception of the sufferings endured by those who, be 
it remembered, were refined and cultivated gentlemen, mostly 



EGBERT W. NEWMAN. 623 

from the higher walks of life, and who were especially sensi- 
tive to the treatment which they received at the hands of the 
officers in charge. The treatment imposed on prisoners of 
state could have had but one object, and that was, to destroy 
their manly bearing and self-respect, which it was thought 
would, ever after, deter them from expressing their views 
concerning any act of the Administration, no matter of how 
violent or heinous a nature it might be. This object was 
steadily pursued in the majority of cases, and was made par- 
ticularly severe in case the victim was a man of more than 
average intelligence or influence. 

In the latter part of July, 1863, after about a month's 
imprisonment, Professor Newman was released, and in his 
case, as in thousands of others, no charges were preferred 
against him. During the period of his incarceration his pro- 
perty was injured, and his library aad apparatus at the 
Harford Academy were partially destroyed or carried oflt" by 
soldiers, urged on to this deed of vandalism by some of the 
" trooly loil " gentlemen of his community, v/ho were carry- 
ing out their Master's precept : " Whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them."'' 



HOI^. BUCKNER S. MORRIS. 

TTJDGE BUCKNER S. MORRIS, whose unjust imprison- 
^ ment and suftering, together with his trial before a Milir 
tarj Commission, in Cincinnati, during the winter of 1864, 
and which created so much excitement throughout the 
country, and particularly in the West, is sixty-eight years of 
age. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and subsequently 
served several years as a member of the Legislature of his 
native State, Kentucky. In 1834, he removed to Chicago, 
Illinois, then a small village of about five hundred inhabit- 
ants. Hei-e he opened an oflice, and soon became widely 
known as an eminent legal practitioner. In 1851, he was 
elected Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Illinois, 
which position he filled with marked ability until 1855, when 
he declined a renomination on account of failing health. He 
then retired from public life, and sought to restore his health 
in the quietude of his home. 

In the contest for the United States Senatorship, in 1858, 
between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, Judge 
Morris and his friends lent the weight of their influence in 
favor of the election of Douglas, who was returned to the 
Senate. During the exciting times of 1860, Judge Morris 
permitted his name to be used as a candidate for the Gov- 
ernorship of Illinois, on the Bell and Everett National tfnion 
ticket, hoping thereby to defeat the sectional Republican 
ticket, the success of which then threatened civil war. Judge 
Morris and Mr. Lincoln were personal and political friends 
for more than twenty years. They served together in the 
Whig party as Electors at large, during the Harrison cam- 
paign of 1840. But after Mr. Lincoln became the advocate 

tJ24 



BUCKNEE, S. MORRIS. 625 

of Abolition principles, tlieir political and social fellowship 
ceased. 

In 1861, wlien civil war burst like a storm over the coun- 
try, when the soil became deluged wdth the best blood of the 
nation, when the maddened people of both sections were 
applying the knife to the throats of their brethren, the 
Judge Avas solicited to take an active part in the contest, but 
declined to do so, continuing to devote his time to his pro- 
fession and his own private business matters, in and out of 
court. 

In the fall of 1864, Colonel Sweet, commandant at Camp 
Douglas, who desired to be brevetted a brigadier-general, 
together with one or two candidates for office, confederated 
together for the purpose of gaining notoriety. They conceived 
the happy thought, the execution of which being popular 
among the people, would give them the desired influence, and 
at the same time assist their master. The arrest of a num- 
ber of Democrats was then determined on, to demoralize the 
party, and deter hundreds of others from voting. 

Accordingl}^, at 2 o'clock a.m., on the 6th of November, 
1864, the day before the Presidential election. Judge Morris 
and a number of others were severally taken from their beds 
by militarj^ force, and conveyed to Camp Douglas. The cells 
in which thej^ were placed were damp, filthy, and literally 
swarming with vermin. Here the Judge remained until the 
return of Captain Sheerley from Buftalo, IST. Y., who (as the 
Judge w^as informed) caused his removal to a much better 
and cleaner room, near his headquarters. In the early part 
of December, his wife, Mrs. IMary B. Morris, was also arrested 
by a captain of the Invalid corps, and brought to Cam[> 
Douglas. By the kindness of Captain Sheerley, they were 
given a room at his headquarters, and permitted to furnish 
their own bedding and furniture. 

Here, they remained incarcerated until the 23d of the same 
month. They were then removed, in company with eight or 
ten others, to Cincinnati, Ohio, for trial, some three hundred- 
miles from their witnesses, friends, and homes, and in viola- 

40 



626 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

tion of the laws of the land. They arrived in Cincinnati on 
the coldest day of tlie season, and were forced to ride for sev- 
eral hours up and down the streets of that city, until the 
officers decided where to imprison then. As their arrival was 
unexpected, no place had been prepared for them. Finally, 
after much deliberation, the benumbed prisoners were lodged 
in prison at the McLean Barracks. Here their treatment by 
the officers was insulting and disgraceful in the extreme, as 
will be seen by reference to the narrative of Mrs. Morris, 
given elsewhere. 

Soon after their arrival in Cincinnati, two or more friends 
of Judge Morris and his wife, in that city, proposed to Major- 
General Hooker, then in command, to take charge of them, 
and put them in a hotel, where they might be supplied with 
necessary comforts, free of expense to the United States Gov- 
ernment ; and, as security for .their forthcoming to answer 
any charges that might be brought against either, these 
friends offered to pledge fifty thousand dollars each. This 
offer was refused. Judge T. W. Bartlett also offered to take 
the Judge and his wife to his own house, in the city, and 
keep them safely, subject to the orders of the commander, 
which was also declined. 

General Willich, second in command, more humane than 
his superior officer, signified his assent to either proposition, 
as the Judge was informed. 

Early in January, 1865, eight of the prisoners, including 
Judge Morris, were placed on trial before a Military Gom- 
mission. They were charged with : 

1st. " Conspiring^ in violation of the laws of war^ to release 
the rebel prisoners of war confined by authority of the United 
States, at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, Illinois. 

2d. " Conspiring, in violation of the laws of war, to lay 
waste and destroy the city of Chicago, Illinois." 

A specification was added to each charge. 

The prisoners all filed pleas, denying the Jurisdiction of the 
Court to try them. 

Protesting their innocence, they argued : 



BUCKNER S. MORRIS. 627 

ist. ■" That the defendants, being citizens of the United 
States, and not connected with the military or naval service 
of the United States, are entitled to be tried by the United 
States Court of the Northern District of Illinois, 

2d. " That, as the offences, alleged to have been committed 
in the charges -and specifications, are not infractions of any 
of the rules and articles of war, but fall within the provisions 
of the act of Congress of July, 1861, this- tribunal cannot 
legally take cognizance of the case. 

3d. " That, according to the second section of the act of 
Congress of March 3, 1863, authorizing arrests by the mili- 
tary authorities in States where the administration of justice 
in the civil courts is not impaired, these defendants should be 
tried by a civil, and not by a military tribunal. 

4th. " That this Military Commission is not authorized 
or provided for, b}'- any power in the country, except by the 
army in the field, and there is no rule or custom providing 
what punishment shall be inflicted. It cannot be claimed 
that this Commission is a matter of necessity, as the civil 
courts of the land are open. 

5th. " That, frqm the nature and manner of the proceed- 
ings of this Commission, a fair trial cannot be had, as the 
Judge Advocate stands as accuser of the defendants, and 
must necessarily be prejudiced against them." 

This plea being overruled, they then moved for a separate 
trial, which was denied them. 

The prisoners then pleaded — not guilty. 

The trial lasted some four months. During the most of 
this time the "prisoners were chained in pairs., and so marched up 
and doion the streets^ to and from the Court, until the public 
began to complain of such barbarous treatment. 

The shackles were then thrown aside. The trial did not 
close until after the assassination of President Lincoln, which 
the Judge Advocate (Burnett) used with great force against 
them, charging the prisoners with being more or less the 
cause thereof. After a confinement of six months they were 
found not guHty, and discharged from military custody. 



628 AMEEICANBASTILE. 

Judge Bartlett, in closing his remarks before the Commis- 
sion, said : " My client, Judge Morris, is a man advanced in 
years. It is not pretended that he had ever been governed 
by any malevolence of heart, enticements of ambition, or al- 
lurements of power. He commenced life before either you 
or I came on the scene of action. He has labored in all sin- 
cerity to maintain and perpetuate what he conceived to be 
the true principles of government, and for the advancement 
and prosperity and safety of the country. 

" His character, both in public and private life, is shown to 
have been without a blemish. Ardent, sincere, humane, and 
hospitable, he had the confidence of the enlightened and well- 
disposed men of all parties. The testimony of Judge Drum- 
mond, and others, puts to blush the narrow, grovelling notion, 
that a citizen cannot be a true or loyal man in time of war, 
unless he advocate and sustain the peculiar war measures 
and policy of the Administration in power. Every member 
of this Commission, every man who has heard the evidence, 
knows that Judge Morris has been guilty of no crime." 

Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, when speaking of military 
courts for the trial of civilians, said: "They have lost sight 
of the guarantees of the Constitution, and seem to forget 

that every man has a right to trial by jury They seem 

formed to convict, whether a man be guilty or not, so that 
he who is acquitted by them, must be not only pur£ indeed, 
but above suspicion. "We are told that 'arbitrary power 
sucks out the heart's blood of civil liberty.'" 

Senator John P. Hale, of jSTew Hampshire, in addressing 
the United States Senate, used the following powerful lan- 
guage: "If trial hy jury is overthrown in this country, 
then take the rest. If you are going to throw a drag-nd 
over the land, as they did in Chicago, if you are going to 
bring in this whole people, and subject them to the penalties 
that may be inflicted by military commissions and courts 
martial, then the last step is taken in the humiliation and deg- 
radation of this country, and we shall be left fit instruments 
for any despotism that the bold and lawless may think 
proper to establish over us." 



AAROIT MORTON, JACOB G. PECK, BENJAMIN H. 
MARKLEY, and HENRY LYNCH. 

AARON MORTON, a citizen of May town, Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania, is a brickmaker by occupation. 
At the commencement of the late civil war, he volunteered 
as a private in Company A, 10th Regiment, Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, in response to the first call of President Lincoln 
for troops. He served his time faithfully, and was honorably 
discharged. During the summer of 1864, Mr. Morton was 
drafted, but in common with several others — both Repub- 
licans and Democrats — failed to report at Lancaster city, in 
answer to his sunmions. Subsequently his township (East 
Donnegal) filled its quota with recruits, thereby exempting 
its drafted men. 

He remained at home, "pursuing the even tenor of his 
way," until Monday, November 7, 1864, when Deputy Mar- 
shal Carpenter, of Lancaster, aided by two soldiers, arrested 
him. The Marshal said that he must accompany them to 
Marshal Stevens's ofiice, in the above-named city. Morton 
demanded his authority for making the arrest, and further 
inquired the nature of the charges against him. The Mar- 
shal failing to produce any warrant or authority, Morton de- 
nied his right to drag him from his home. Carpenter in- 
sisted that his being an United States Deputy Marshal gave 
him sufficient authority to make the arrest, and forced him 
to comply with his mandate. Morton accompanied him 
peaceably, but under protest. On arriving at Provost Mar- 
shal Stevens's office, in Lancaster, he was placed under a 
guard, and removed thence to the County Prison. While 
there confined, he was oficrcd convict's fare, bread and water, 



630 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

but declined it, and paid the usual charges for hoard. 
The jailer afterward remarked : " That is the place where all 
Democrats should he." He subsequently inquired of the 
prisoner if, on his procuring his release, he would vote the 
Republican ticket. Mr. Morton indignantly spurned the 
proposal, and remained in prison until the 10th inst., when 
several of his friends demanded his release, or a hearing. 
Stevens feigned ignorance of his arrest, and ordered his im- 
mediate discharge. AVhen the prisoner was brought into 
his (Stevens's) office, the Marshal simply said, " You can now 
go home, we have nothing to do with you." Carpenter then 
turned toward Mr. Morton and remarked, that "if -he had 
no money he could walk to his home," (sixteen miles distant,) 
" as it was not very far." 

JACOB G. PECK. 

Jacob G. Peck, a fellow-townsman of Mr. Morton, was 
sought for on the same day, but was not at home, and thereby 
escaped a few days' incarceration ; it not being the intention 
of those in authority to hold them longer than a few days, 
as will be seen in the sequel. 

BENJAMIN H. MARKLEY. 

Benjamin H. Markley, of the same place, while in the act 
of voting at the Presidential election, on 'Tuesday, November 
8, 18(34, was touched on the arm by Deputy Marshal Middle- 
ton Whitehall, and claimed as a prisoner. The Marshal was 
anxious to hurry him away from the polls, but was prevented, 
he being unable to show any authority for the arrest. After 
Markley had voted, Messrs. George Wilson, Henry Haines, 
Henry Houseal, and other old and respected citizens, requested 
Whitehall, if he had authority for making the arrest, to take 
the prisoner with him, and assuring him that he should not 
be molested in the execution of his duty. This offer he de- 
clined, and left the town shortly afterward. 

The constable of Maytown, in his next return to the Court 
at Lancaster, reported a disturbance of the peace at the elec- 



( 



HENEY LYI^CH. 631 

tion polls in May town, on Tuesday, ISTovember 8, 1864, by 
Middleton Whitehall, Eut when the charge subsequently 
came before the Grand Jury, the bill was ignored ; thereby 
sustainino; men in committinsr outrao;es in direct defiance of 
the laws. 

IIEITRY LYNCH. 

The fourth case we have to chronicle is that of Henry 
Lynch, of Marietta. He was arrested by Carpenter, on the 
same day, and for the same purpose as the others. He was 
charged with being a deserter, which charge, unsustained as 
it was, furnished the necessary excuse for his arrest. He 
was conveyed to Lancaster and incarcerated with Mr. Mor- 
ton in the County Prison, where he remained until the 10th, 
when he was released unconditionally. Nothing was after- 
ward said to him about being a deserter. The charge had 
answered the purpose of his arrest, and that was sufficient 
for the perpetrators of the outrage. 

These premeditated arrests had but one direct purpose — to 
prevent citizens from voting. These were but the victims 
of the executed portion of a plot for the arrest and imprison- 
ment of a number of other citizens named on the proscrip- 
tion lists. These gentlemen were known to be staunch and 
sterling Democrats, and so determined was the Marshal to 
serve his master, that no step was too vile for him to take 
in order to accomplish his end. His little soul being unable 
to conceive of any other method, he determined to deprive 
the above-named gentlemen of their votes, by arresting and 
imprisoning them, until after the election. But " time, that 
makes all things even," vindicates the innocent, rewards the 
persecuted, and inevitably punishes the persecutor. 



HOX. HENRY CLAY DEAK 

HOiSr. HENRY CLAY DEAN, whose arrest and scan- 
dalous treatment we are about to chronicle, resides at 
Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He is a lawyer by profession, but 
]nore recently has earned considerable reputation as an 
author. In politics, he is a staunch but conservative Demo- 
crat. In 1863, at the earnest solicitation of friends, he con- 
cluded to address the people of his State on the issues of the 
hour, and endeavor, if possible, to stem the torrent of fanati- 
cism then sweeping over the State. He, at various times 
and places, with a calm and temperate spirit, yet with the 
boldness of a freeman, discussed the questions which were 
then shaking the very foundations of the Union, and dis- 
rupting and demoralizing society. 

He had been preceded by weak, wicked men, who were 
stirring up strife as a daily avocation ; thirsting for blood ; 
retailing, with insane satisfaction, the details of some late 
murder, some heart-rending cata8troj)he, or savage slaughter 
of innocent children. They had learned themselves, and 
were teaching others, to laugh at the conflagration which 
laid cities in ashes. They felt that nothing had been well 
done where the black visage of war had not gone, or the 
track of the bloody foot of desolation had not been well im- 
printed. Fury seemed to have become a virtue among those 
who should have been most calm. Violence was the watch- 
word of those whose avocation was to teach meekness as a 
law of life, and love as the only preparation for the world to 
come. 

Ministers of the Gospel of Peace were teaching such lessons 
of cruelty, in such a spirit of violence, and in such language 
of intolerant malice, as made the ordinary mind, yet retain- 
ing self-control, grow sick. Judges of courts, whose duty it 

632 



HENRY CLAY DEAN. 633 

was to keep the peace, in open defiance of the obligations 
of their oaths of office, in contempt of the long-established' 
conservative character of the honorable profession in which 
thej were educated, and to the great scandal of the ermine, 
went into the rural districts during the current session of 
their courts, and delivered harangues, appealing to the basest 
passions of human nature, encouraging crimes most obnox- 
ious to the laws of the country, and indulging in language 
well calculated to light the whole land in a blaze of furious, 
endless lawlessness and civil war. Yet, in addressing the 
people, Mr. Dean found that, underneath all this party bit- 
terness and strife, which were but momentary, there was 
a flood of good feeling, as pure as the waters that gush 
from beneath the Alpine mountains of perpetual snow. The 
masses of the people still loved each other, but were misled 
until their passions were hot as the burning sand, and explo- 
sive as gunpowder. When he spoke of renewing old neigh- 
borhoods, reviving Christian fellowship, and cultivating bro- 
therly love, cheering smiles would play upon their faces, wild 
huzzas of good feeling would break forth from their manly 
lips, and tears would sometimes drive each other down their 
sunburnt cheeks, as they prayed the sweet spirit of Friendship 
to return, the Angel of Mercy to banish the Angel of Death, 
and the Genius of Christianity to again assert her supreme 
sovereignty over society — over our divided, distracted, and 
wellnigh ruined country. 

In these actions, in these speeches, consisted his offence. 
The leaders of the Radical party in the State determined to 
give him a qnu'tas, regardless of consequences, and only 
waited an opportunity for executing their lawless desire for 
vengeance. The opportune moment for the gratification of 
their fiendish desire at length arrived. In May, 1863, he was 
arrested at Keokuk, while on his way from Quincy, Illinois, 
to Keosauqua, Iowa, to attend a meeting of the Democratic 
party. Mobocracy had run riot in Keokuk for many months, 
under the auspices of the officers commanding the post and 
having in charge the medical department. He had to pass 



634 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

through Iveokuk to reach the cars. Before he landed at the 
wharf, he learned that the " Gate City," the only paper pub- 
lished in Keokuk, had demanded his arrest. JSTearly every 
Puritan paper in the State had joined in the general howl. 
The tone of the press was like the bulletins issued in the dark 
alleys of Paris, or the handbills posted on the front of the 
buildings early on each morning, containing the death-war- 
rant of some intended victim of assassination, in the most 
terrible days of the French Revolution. This issue of the 
paper was but the foreshadowing of the intention of malig- 
lumt citizens of Keokuk. All the details of his arrest are 
not proper for the public eye. 

His arrest was agreed upon as soon as his name was regis- 
tered at the Billings House. Mr. D. was then, and is now, 
unconscious of having ever wronged or justly incurred the 
ill-will of any human being in that city, from any cause 
whatever. He called to see the Hon. J. "VV. Clagett, on busi- 
ness, and, while sitting on the porch with the Judge, saw 
a crowd approaching, who inquired for him, calling him 
by name. Instinctively aware that he was about to be ar- 
rested, he did not call in question their authority, for the 
following reasons : 

First. Every soldier is under a most solemn oath, and a 
very severe penalty, to obey the articles of war, which forbid 
anything like the semblance of a mob. 

SecoivL Every officer is held responsible for the discipline 
and conduct of his soldiers, and whenever soldiers become a 
mob, or engage in a mob, the officers are either corrupt or 
imbecile. 

Third. A young man by the name of Ball, while in the 
office of the Provost Marshal , informed him, with the grin, 
and very much the tone of a Sioux Indian, that he ' wanted 
the boys to take their satisfaction out of him,' and that he 
now arrested him in due form, and accordingly handed him 
o\^ to the Sergeant of the provost guard. 

After his arrest at the house of Judge Clagett, Mr. Dean 
was placed in the front of the crowd, with a low-bred, insolent 



HENRY CLAY DEAN. 635 

man, wlio commenced asking liim offensive questions, of wliich 
lie took no notice. After hurrying him through several 
streets, a hollow square was formed, where he was taunted, 
threatened, and insulted, for a full half-hour. He was gra- 
ciously informed that death was entirely too mild a punish- 
ment to be administered to a " Copperhead," who, in the 
choice language of their newspapers, was foolhardy and de- 
mented enough to venture through Keokuk. 

The soldiers were all strangers to him, and were led on and 
prompted to their action by the Puritan clique, who had an 
unsettled account with him for some candid talk about the 
year 1860, when he was a candidate for Elector of the State 
at large, on the Democratic ticket, headed by the name of 
Judge Douglas. 

These benevolent men thought I^ature at fault, that she 
had not endowed him with at least four separate and distinct 
lives, that each of them might be entirely gratified in having 
him put to death in his own choice way. On the outside of the 
crowd there stood a merchant of thin visage, sharp nose, red 
head, and exceeding thin lips, who cried out, at the top of 
his voice, " He ought to be drowned, seeing the Mississippi 
is 80 close at hand," when there went up a yell of " Droum 
him ! " " Drown him 1 " " DROWjST HIM ! " Another of the 
malignants spoke up and said, " Drowning was entirely too 
easy and speedy a death for a Copperhead ;" and cried out, 
''Hang him!" "Hang him 1" ^^lAI^GHIM!" Still an- 
other commenced, and the cry went up, " Shoot him ! " ".Shoot 
HIM ! " " SHOOT HIM ! " 

A fourth, with the murderous laugh of a Pawnee, said, 
" Burning would better measure out the allotted punishment, 
lengthen the scene of enjoyment, and minister more tho- 
roughly to the gratification of the executioners." This gen- 
tleman found no response ; his humanitarian idea evidently 
being in advance of his coadjutors. Every maimer of insult 
and opprobrious epithet was used to jeer, mortify, and offend. 

After being thus brutally treated, Mr. Dean addressed the 
crowd for a few minutes, and informed them that he ha4 



636 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

been sick for nearly a week, was then taking medicine, and 
desired a place to be at rest. 

After mucli parleying, whooping, yelling, and coarse insult, 
he was marched down to the office of the Provost Marshal, 
and there commanded by the young man. Ball, to strip him- 
self stark naked, which he had to do, in the presence of a 
large crowd, and to remain in that condition for fifteen min- 
utes, while his clothes were searched, and each one of the party 
had taken his full liberty in about the same kind of jesting 
that had occurred in the street, except that it was coarser 
and broader in the room. Mr. Dean told Ball that he had 
understood that he was an officer educated at West Point, 
from which he inferred that he was a gentleman. Being 
informed to the contrary, that he was not a AVest-Pointer, 
Mr. 1). placed it to the lasting credit of that institution. 

After he had been allowed to put on his clothes, his carpet- 
sack was sent for, carefully searched, and his private letters 
and papers read aloud in the presence of the crowd, open to 
the inspection of everybody. The letters of his wife, and 
other papers, were jumbled together, and his knife and other 
articles taken, which he has never been able to recover. 

After all this was over, Mr. Ball sent some one of the crowd 
to inform the soldiers that he would assure them that Mr. Dean 
would be severely dealt with, and they were permitted to 
retire. He was soon lodged in the guard-house, where there 
was neither chair, stool, nor stand. kSergeant Newport kindly 
furnished him a cot. One filthy towel was the wiping-cloth 
of a large body of men, some with diseased and scrofulous 
eyes. Sergeant Newport, as well as every soldier of the pro- 
vost guard, treated him with civility, courtesy, and respect, 
and their actions compared favorably with those of their 
superior officers. 

" I was informed, upon my first entrance into this place," 
says Mr. Dean, " that the central idea of a military prison 
is to make it as nearly the very essence of hell as is possible. 
In this they have made a capital success. The room is about 
sixteen feet wide by forty-five feet long, with enough taken 



HENEY CLAY DEAN. 637 

off of tlie side to make room for a flight of stairs. In this 
room there are fifty men lying side by side. They are of 
almost every conceivable grade, gathered from every rank in 
society, and charged with every manner of offence known to 
the laws of God and man. Some of them, even in sickness, 
lawless and ungovernable, have been sent in from the hos- 
pital, breathing the deadly malaria of all the diseases gene- 
rated by the vices of the army. The stench of scrofula issu- 
ing from their putrid breath, would nauseate the stomach 
of the oldest Bacchanalian. Another squad, that contributed 
to the more dense population of the place of this semi-celestial 
chamber, which is elevated to the third story of a dilapidated 
store-house in the ragged suburbs of a dilapidated river town, 
was a body of convalescent soldiers, which has been sent up 
for mobbing a quiet country gentleman to avenge the malice 
of a drunken Cyprian. 

" In this place there were bushwhackers fresh, from the 
charcoal fields of the guerrilla bands of Missouri, who had 
stood like hungry hyenas over the dying, innocent victims 
of their rapacity and lust. On the floor of the farther end 
of the room lay a gang of rowdies, who were snatched up for 
infesting a low brothel in the purlieus of the city. Very 
near them was a group of reckless Rounders, reeking with 
drugged liquors, infuriated with madness, belching forth 
oaths, and howling obscene songs, compared with which the 
jovial scenes of Billingsgate are chaste and modest. This 
body of ruffians were placed for safe keeping in the guard- 
house, until the wdiiskey had died out on their brains, and 
its putrid fumes began to poison the atmosphere. Inter- 
mingled with the others were deserters, escaping the hard- 
ships and duties of the armies, together with rebel prisoners 
arrested on their way back to take up arms against the 
Government. There are here confined men who had com- 
mitted rape, horse-thieves, watch-thieves, murderers, and 
traitors, in a common nest huddled together. To add to the 
interest of this society, every evening the patrol guard would 
gather up the beastly drunk and tumble them in. 



638 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

" At about nine o'clock at niglit the roll was called, and 
those most able-bodied and desperate were locked in chains, 
two together. Then the whole crowd would break out in 
one long-continued, hideous yell, compared with which the 
howls of a gang of half-starved prairie wolves are musical and 
melodious. To add to the attractions of this new habitation, 
tobacco spittle, the expectoration of lungs half rotten with 
consumption, the contents of catarrh nostrils, with the spon- 
taneous relief given by nature to drunken men, were indis- 
criminately scattered over the floor, while every stitch of 
clothes was literally filled with vermin. And this was the 
prison into which a free American citizen was placed for 
daring to be a Democrat. 

" For fourteen long and loathsome, dreary days and nights, 
feverish w^th loss of sleep, and gasping for breath, I was con- 
fined in this nameless place. Sometimes I would go to the 
window for a draught of pure air, only to catch the flood of 
dust that swept through the streets, and was breathed in 
my nostrils until my lungs became so swollen that I could 
scarcely inhale or exhale the air, and my tongue became so 
enlarged at the palate that I could with difliculty swallow 
my food. The prisoners ate after the soldiers, and com- 
plained much of their food. I received my meals regularly 
from a kind-hearted Democratic lady, of great intelligence 
and worth, whom even mobs could not deter from doing her 
duty. 

" Through the day, the prisoners, to give exercise to their 
limbs, would romp and play like wild horses, until the build- 
ing would tremble at its base. The long loss of rest made 
me faint on each returning evening, for the quiet interval of 
two hours, from two o'clock till four in the morning, promised 
the only quiet which could be enjoyed, even for sleep, in this 
pandemonium. 

" These men treated me kindly and respectfully underneath 
all infirmities and misfortun-es. With these poor fellows 
there w^as a great fountain of the pure milk of human kind- 
ness still flowing, and a tender sensibility, which, when 



HENRY CLAY DEAN. 639 

touched, would break forth in tears, or in tones of subdued 
aifection, for home, and family, and God. I duly recognized 
their sympathy, and addressed myself to its relief, and spent 
my time in writing letters for unfortunate husbands to their 
wives, who were left in cabins without food or raiment, ex- 
cept as it was earned by mothers at the wash-tub, or in the 
broiling sun. Children wrote to their disconsolate parents 
trembling on the verge of the grave. A wild, frolicksome 
fellow, who had grown sad, talked to me of his black-eyed 
Mary of the frontier, her playful eye, her sweet voice, and 
the last pledge of. love he had made to her before leaving for 
the wars. When he spoke, ever and anon a tear would 
sparkle in his eye, and the innocence of childhood arise in 
his countenance, checked for a moment by his unfortunate 
condition, as the floating cloud obscures the brightness 
of the sun. There were other poor fellows, arraigned 
for grave offences against God and liberty, law and order, 
whose cases I assisted to prepare for court. There was no 
amusement other than the place itself aflbrded. Onr only 
theatrical enjoyment was the outburst of tine Irish wit, re- 
freshed by such whiskey as would never have found a place 
in Ireland." 

This place had a chaplain, of whom the prisoners knew 
just nothing at all. We suppose him to have been a good, 
clever, inoffensive man, as innocent of human nature and its 
wants as an Englishman's mastifi' is of the common law of the 
land. He never spoke to the prisoners of their real spiritual 
wants, or assisted them in making their condition happier. 
Yet, like a true Government officer, he drew his salary regu- 
larly. Mr. Dean left the place with many kind feelings for 
the inmates. He tried to impress each of them with the con- 
viction that, while any man may be a prisoner, the prisoner 
should not forget that he is still a man. Weighing two hun- 
dred and thirty pounds, suiFocation wellnigh exhausted his 
strength. At the end of fourteen days, his wife, who is a lady 
of feeble health, and was then sick, stopped at the Billings 
House. He obtained, a parole of honor to visit her, agreeing 



640 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

to confine himself to tbeliotel. During this time the United 
States Court was in session in Des Moines, for the purpose 
of finding indictments. Indictments were found against men 
for various oftences. Any kind of indictment would have 
been a relief to the Puritanical persecutors who were hunting 
him down. The whole country was raked, scraped, and 
canvassed by spies, eavesdroppers, and common informers, 
in the genuine spirit of Titus Gates. Every effort was used 
— personal spite, political malice, private conversations, news- 
paper scraps, written speeches, political associations, and 
party antecedents, were all thoroughly examined for treason, 
sedition, or anything which would implicate his love of coun- 
try or prove his sympathies with its enemies. But no indict- 
ment could be found in a good season for indictments, when 
one was needed to cover up the wrongs committed against 
law, order, and decency by his assailants. 

This was not the only instance of w^rong suffered, nor the 
only act of violence done in the city of Keokuk. They were 
frequent and outrageous. The " Constitution " newspaper 
office was destroj'cd. Mr. Hoover's store was destroyed in 
the same way. The private dwellings of a number of Dem- 
ocrats were assailed in the dead liour of night, by the same 
persons. Houses were ransacked in the same way ; and a 
note was sent by young Ball, giving notice to an officer not 
to attack a private family until the husband returned. 

Mr. Dean had not been in the guard-house seventy hours 
for exercising the right of free speech, until Governor Kirk- 
wood, Congressman AYilson, and Adjutant-General Baker 
were posted to speak within hearing of where he was guarded ; 
and Mr. Wilson endeavored to convince the people that all 
arbitrary arrests were right, and were not of sufficient fre- 
quency. It was such passionate harangues that demoralized 
the army, and, by a strict and fair construction of military 
law, these men were mutineers ; and so long as it was done 
there was no safety to life, liberty, or property. 

Mr. Dean says, "I was in danger at any time of assassina- 
tion from that class of citizens who incite all the mobs. One 



HENRY CLAY DEAN. 641 

brave soldier told me, during my confinement, that a citizen 
of Keokuk had ofiered him one hundred dollars if he would 
assassinate me ; and told the soldier that he need never be 
known in the transaction ; that if arrested, he would be ac- 
quitted at once ; that he might charge me with running- 
guard. The same class of citizens spoke of my assassination 
in the bar-rooms and elsewhere. Every personal acquaintance 
among the soldiers, sick, well, and convalescent, treated me 
with kindness. And of every demonstration against any 
one, the malignant citizens, the imbecile and corrupt ofiicei's 
were not only negatively, but positively the acting^ moving, 
misrepresenting, instigating cause." 

On the lltli June, 1863, Mr. Dean was unconditionally 
DiscHAKGED by General J. M. Iliatt, the Provost Marshal, 
an officer exceedingly tenacious of his rights and duties, and 
who at no time had shown any disposition to favor or screen 
him from any testimony that might, in any way, fasten upon 
him. But it is but just to say that he was in no wise a party 
to the personal insults oft'ered Mr. Dean, but uniformly treated 
him with civility. 
41 



FRAN"K KEY HOWARD, ESQ. 

TT would be impossible, without extending this work far 
-*- beyond the limits designed, to give a separate history of 
each one of the many cases of gentlemen of Baltimore, 
and from diiferent parts of the State of Maryland, who Avere 
arrested and imprisoned. 

It will be remembered that the Mayor of the city of Bal- 
timore, the Police Commissioners, the Marshal of Police, 
members of the State Legislature, and private citizens, not 
only from that city, but from all parts of the State, were ar- 
rested and thrown into prison, by the edict of Abraham Lin- 
coln, and kept there for months, without any warrant of law 
whatever. 

The prerogative exercised by Mr. Lincoln in Maryland, as 
elsewhere, exhibits an assumption of power unparalleled in 
the history of any country, at any time. For, be it remem- 
bered, Maryland was not in a state of revolution or rebellion. 
Mob law may have existed at times in the city of Baltimore, 
but did it not exist, at times, in the city of Philadelphia ^ Xor 
was tliere any well-founded reason to apprehend that the Legis- 
lature of Maryland would pass an ordinance of secession. 

Hon. S. Teackle "VVallis, a prominent member of that body 
— and one of the victims of arbitrary power — in a letter 
addressed by him to John Sherman, Senator of Ohio, says : 

" The special session of the Legislature of Maryland, called 
by Governor Hicks, in 18G1, was opened in Frederick, on the 
26th of April, in that year. On the next day, April 27, a 
select committee of the Senate reported to that body an ad- 
dress to the people of Maryland, which, on the same day, 
was unanimously adopted, and was shortly afterward pub- 

642 



FHANK KEY HOWARD. 643 

lislied, with the individuai signatures of the Senators, in all 
the newspapers of the State. 

" The principal feature of that address, in fact almost the 
only purpose of its promulgation, is developed in the follow- 
ing extract : 

" ' We cannot hut know that a large portion of the citizens 
of Maryland have heen induced to believe that there is a 
probability that our deliberations may result in the passage 
of some measure committing this State to secession. It is, 
therefore, our duty to declare that all such fears are without 
just foundation. We know that we have no constitutional au- 
thority to take such action ; yon need not fear that there is « pos- 
sibility that we will do so.' " 

Notwithstanding this enunciation, the Maryland Legisla- 
ture was suppressed, the members incarcerated, and citi- 
zens by the scores throughout the State imprisoned. There- 
fore, in order to embrace the history of many of the cases 
of citizens in Baltimore — because they are not dissimilar — 
in one narrative, we present a most interesting and readable 
one, from the pen of Frank Key Howard, Esq., a member of 
the Baltimore Bar. 

FORT ]SIcIiEXRY. 
On the morning of the 13th of September, 1861, at my 
residence, in the city of Baltimore, I was awakened, about 
half-past twelve or one o'clock, by the ringing of the bell. 
On going to the window, I saw a man standing on the steps 
below, who told me he had a message for me fi-om Mr. S. T. 
Wallis. I desired to know the purport of it, when he in- 
formed me that he could only deliver it to me privately. As 
it had been rumored that the Government intended to arrest 
the members of the Legislature, and as Mr. Wallis was one 
of the most prominent of the Delegates from the city of 
Baltimore, I thought it probable that the threatened outrage 
had been consummated, and I hurried down to tlie door. 
"When I opened it, two men entered, leaving the door ajar. 
One of them informed mc tliat he had an order for my arrest. 



644 AMERICAN B A STILE, 

In answer to my demand tliat he should produce the warrant 
or order under which he was acting, he declined to do so, 
but said he had instructions from Mr. Seward, the Secretary 
of State. 

I replied that I couLl recognize no such authority, when 
he stated that he intended to execute his orders, and that 
resistance would be idle, as he had a force with him sufficient 
to render it unavailing. As he spoke, several men entered 
the house, more than one of whom were armed with revolvers, 
which I saw in their belts. There was no one in the house, 
when it was thus invaded, except my wife, children, and ser- 
vants ; and, under such circumstances, I, of course, abandoned 
all idea of resistance. I went into my library, and sent for 
my wife, who soon joined me there, when I was informed 
that neither of us would be permitted to leave the room 
until the house had been searched. How many men were 
present, I am unable to say, but two or three were stationed 
in my library, and one at the front door, and I saw several 
others passing, from time to time, along the passage. The 
leader of the gang then began to search the a[)artment. 
Every drawer and box was thoroughly ransacked, as also 
were my portfolio and writing-desk, and every other place 
that could possibly be supposed to hold any papers. All my 
private memoranda, bills, note-books, and letters were col- 
lected together, to be carried off. Every room in the house 
subsequently underwent a similar search. After the first 
two rooms had been thus searched, I was told that I could 
not remain longer, but must prepare to go to Fort McIIeniy. 
I went up stairs, to finish dressing, accompanied by the leader 
of the party, and I saw that men were stationed in all parts 
of the house, one even standing sentinel at the door of m)' 
children's nursery. Having dressed, and packed up a change 
of clothes, and a few other articles, I went down into the 
library, and was notified that I must at once depart. I 
demanded permission to send for my wife's brother or father, 
who were in the immediate neighborhood, but this was re- 
fused. My wife then desired to go to her children's room, 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 645 

and this request was also refused. I was forced to submit ; 
and ordering the servants to remain in the room with my 
wife, and giving decided expression to my feelings concern- 
ing the outrage perpetrated upon me, and the miserable 
tyrants who had authorized it, I got into the carriage which 
was waiting to convey me to Fort McHenry. Two men, 
wearing the badges of the police force which the Govern- 
ment had organized,. escorted me to the Fort. It was with 
a bitter pang that I left my house in possession of the mis- 
creants who had invaded it. I afterward learned that the 
search was continued for some time, and it was not until 
after three o'clock in the morning that they left the premises. 
I reached Fort McIIenry about two o'clock in the morn- 
ing. There I found several of my friends, and others were 
brought in a few minutes afterward. One or two were 
brought in later in the da.y, making fifteen in all. Among 
them were most of the members of the Legislature from 
Baltimore, Mr. Brown, the Mayor of the city, and one of 
our Eepresentatives in Congress, Mr. May. They were all 
gentlemen of high social position, and of unimpeachable 
character, and each of them had been arrested, as has been 
said, solely on account of his political opinions, no definite 
charge having been then or afterward preferred against 
them. Two small rooms were assigned us during our stay. 
In the smaller one of these I was placed, with three com- 
panions. The furniture consisted of three or four chairs and 
an old rickety bedstead, upon which was the filthiest apology 
for a bed I ever saw. There was also a tolerably clean-looking 
mattress lying in one corner. Upon this mattress, and upo^i 
the chairs and bedstead, we vainly tried to get a few hours' 
sleep. The rooms were in the second story of the building, 
and opened upon a narrow balcony, which we were allowed 
to use, sentinels, however, being stationed on it. When I 
looked out in the morning, I could not help being struck by 
an odd and not pleasant coincidence. On that day, forty- 
seven years before, my grandfather, Mr. F. S. Key, then a 
prisoner on a British ship, had witnessed the bombardment 



646 AMERICAN BASTIXE. 

of Fort McIIenry. "When, on the following morning, the 
hostile fleet drew off, defeated, he wrote the song so long 
popular throughout the country, the " Star-spangled Ban- 
ner." As I stood upon the very scene of that conflict, I 
could not hut contrast my pofiition with his, forty-seven 
years before. The flag which he had then so proudly hailed, 
I saw waving, at the same place, over the victims of as vulgar 
and brutal a despotism as modern times have witnessed. 

At an early hour in the morning, and through the day, a 
number of our friends endeavored to procure access to us, but 
nearly all failed to do so. Three or four gentlemen and two 
or three ladies managed to obtain admission to the Fort, and 
Colonel Morris, the commanding oflicer, permitted them to 
interchange a few words with us, in his presence, they being 
down on the parade-ground and we up in the balcony. Mr. 
Brown was not even allowed to speak to his wife, Avho had 
been suffered to enter the Fort, and could only take leave of 
her by Ijowing to her across the parade-ground. About mid- 
day, we sent for our clothes, several of the party having left 
home without brino-iusr anvthins; whatever with them. At 
4 o'clock P.M., we were notified that we were to be sent at Ave 
o'clock to Fortress Monroe. The trunks of most of us for- 
tunately arrived half an hour before we left, and were tlior- 
oughl}' vsearched. Had they been delayed a little longer, vv'e 
should undoubtedly have been sent off with only such little 
clothing as some of us happened to have brought with us 
when first arrested. As it was, one or two of the party had 
absolutely nothing save what they wore. About six o'clock, 
we left Fort IMcIIenry on the steamer Adehiide. The after- 
cabin, which was very conifortable, and the after-deck, on 
which it 0}">ened, were assigned to our use. Sentinels were 
stationed in the cabin and on the after-deck. The officers 
and crew of the boat treated us with all the kindness and 
courteiiy it was in their power to show. When we were taken 
below to supper, we saw at another tal)le a number of naval 
ofl[icers, some of whom several of my companions had known 
well. These oflicers did not venture to recosrnize a siuij-le 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 647 

individual of our party, although we were within ten feet of 
tliem, and within full view. Their conduct was in admirable 
keeping with that of the Government they served. 

FORTRESS MOI^ROE. 
We reached Fortress Monroe about six o'clock, on the 
morning of September 14. Major-General John E. Wool was 
in command of the Department within which the Fort was 
situated, and had his headquarters there at the time. As no 
arrangements had been made for our reception, we did not 
land until late in the day. The boat lay at the wharf for 
several hours, and then ran up above the Fortress about a 
quarter of a mile, and anchored in the stream. In the course 
of the day, General Wool sent for Messrs. Brown and May. 
He stated to them that our arrival had taken him by sur- 
prise, and that he had no quarters prepared for us, but said 
that some of the casemates were being made ready for us. 
He evidently felt that the accommodations he was about to 
give us were not such as we had a right to expect, and inti- 
mated that a building known as Carroll Hall, or a portion of 
it, would, in all probability, be assigned to us in a few days. 
This was the last that any of the party saw of General Wool, 
and we heard no more Of Carroll Hall. About five o'clock, 
we landed, and were marched to our quarters. These con- 
sisted of two casemates, from which some negroes were still 
engaged in removing dirt and rubbish, when we got there. 
Each of these casemates was divided by a substantial parti- 
tion, thus making four rooms. The two front rooms were 
well finished, and were about fifteen by twenty-three feet 
each, and each had a door and two windows which opened 
on the grounds within the Fortress. The windows had Ve- 
netian shutters to them, and there were Venetian doors also, 
outside of the ordinary solid doors. The inner, or back rooms, 
if rooms they can be called, were considerably smaller than 
the others, and were simply vaulted chambers of rough stone, 
whitewashed. They were each lighted by a single, deep em- 
brasure, which, at the narrowest part, was about forty-four 



648 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

\)j twenty-two inches. Just beneath these embrasures was 
the moat, which at that point was more than fifty feet in 
width. On the opposite side of the moat a sentinel was con- 
stantly stationed. The two back rooms and one of the front 
ones we used as sleeping apartments, each being occupied by 
five persons. In the other front room we took our meals. 
Bedsteads and bedding were furnished us, which, I believe, 
were obtained from the Hygeia Hotel, just outside the walls. 
About ten o'clock, one of the Sergeants of the Provost Mar- 
shal visited us, and carefully searched our baggage. Our 
meals were sent from the hotel also, and worse, as we at that 
time thought, could not well have been offered us. The 
regulations to which we were subjected, were not only unne- 
cessarily rigorous, but seem to have been framed with the 
deliberate purpose of adding petty insults to our other annoy- 
ances. We were required to leave the room when the ser- 
vants who brouo;lit our meals were engao-ed in settincj the 
table, although a sergeant of the guard was always present 
at such times, to prevent our holding any conversation with 
them. We were notified, by aji order from General Wool also, 
that the knives and forks were to he counted, after each meal. It 
is difficult to conceive for what rational purpose such a rule 
was made. Fifteen of us would scarcely have thought of 
assailing the thousands of troops who composed the garri- 
son, with such weapons as might have been snatched from 
the table ; and, closely guarded as we were, it was hardly 
possible that we could have eftected our escape, had we 
thought of doing so, by means of such implements as knives 
and forks. The order was one, therefore, which could only 
have been intended to humiliate us, and it was certainly such 
as no one having the instincts of a gentleman, or the better 
feelings of a man, would have suggested or enforced. It 
was, however, in accordance with the theory upon which 
General Wool thought proper to deal with us throughout. 

In front of our casemates a large guard was stationed day 
and night, two or three tents being pitched about ten feet 
off for their use ; and a sentinel was constantly pacing up 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 649 

and down within four feet of our doors. For a week we 
never left our two casemates for a single instant, for any 
purpose whatever. We continually remonstrated against 
the manner in which we were treated, and represented the 
fact that we were likely, under such circumstances, to suffer 
seriously in health. Our complaints were generally followed 
by some new restriction. After we had been there two or 
three days, the Sergeant of the Guard closed the window- 
shutters and the Venetian doors of our rooms, and stated 
that he had express orders to do so. At our request, Mr. 
Wallis addressed the following note to Captain Davis, the 
Provost Marshal : 

"Captain Davis, U. S. A., Provost Marshal: 

'^ Sir : The Sergeant who has charge of my fellow-prisoners 
and myself, has just closed the blinds of our front windows and 
doors, excluding us from the sight of passing objects, shutting 
out, to a great extent, the light by which we read, and hindering 
the circulation of the air through our apartments. These last 
are, at best, damp and unwholesome, and to-day particularly, in 
the existing state of the atmosphere, are extremely unpleasant 
and uncomfortable — so much so, that we have been compelled 
to build a fire for our mere protection from illness. Some of our 
number are old men; others in delicate health; and the restraint 
which excludes us from air and exercise is painful enough, with- 
out this new annoyance, which the Sergeant informs us he has 
no right to forego. You are aware of the disgusting necessities 
to which we are subjected, in a particular of Avhich we spoke to 
you personally, and jon will, of course, know how much this 
new obstruction must add to our discomfort. I am requested 
by my companions simply to call your attention to the matter, 
and am, 

Very respectfull}', 

"S. T. Wallis. 

"Fortress Monroe, 17th September, 1861." 

No reply was made to this by Captain Davis. On the fol- 
lowing day, iron bars were placed across the shutters, and 



650 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

padlocked, tlius fastening them permanently, and the Vene- 
tian doors were padlocked also. The keys were kept by the 
Sergeant, who was the deputy, or assistant, of the Provost 
Marshal, and, in his absence, no one had access to our rooms. 
In consequence of this, we were often put to serious incon- 
venience, and on several occasions, our meals, which were 
trundled up from the hotel on a wheelbarrow, remained for 
an hour or two outside of the door, awaiting the pleasure of 
the Sergeant. After the closing of the doors and shutters, 
our situation was, of course, far more irksome than ever. 
The Venetian doors were not quite so high as the solid doors, 
and by standing on anything that elevated us a few inches, 
we could mana2:e to look out over them. Through these 
furtive and unsatisfactory glimpses only, could we obtain 
any sight of the outer world on that side of our prison. 
From the back rooms we had a limited view of the river, 
and of some of the shipping ; and of this prospect it was 
impossible by the exercise of any ingenuity to deprive us. 
A day or two before we left, we were allowed, at intervals 
dnring the day, the use of an adjoining casemate. Sanitary 
considerations, I presume, compelled our keepers to grant us 
a privilege, which it was sheer brutality to have so long de- 
nied us. A door communicated between our quarters and 
this new casemate, at which a sentinel was stationed, who 
permitted two persons to pass at one time. The more dis- 
gusting and painful details of our imprisonment, I nmst ab- 
stain from dwelling on. Our rooms were swept each morn- 
ing, and such other personal services as were absolutely ne- 
cessary Avere hurriedly performed by two tilthy negro boys, 
under the supervision of the Sergeant of the Guard. 

We were permitted to correspond with our families and 
friends, all our letters undergoing the scrutinj^ of one of 
General Wool's officers. But we were not allowed to make 
any public statements, nor even to correct the falsehoods or 
slanders which were circulated about us in the newspapers. 
On one occasion, a paragraph appeared in the Baltimore 
" American," which, by way of justifying our arrest, alleged 



F E A N K KEY HOWARD. 651 

tliat the Government had in its possession ample evidence of 
the fact, that all who had been arrested had in some way 
violated the laws. An assertion so utterly false we naturally 
desired to contradict, and Messrs. Brown, and Wallis, and 
myself, each wrote a brief card for publication in other 
journals, denying the truth of the " American's " statement. 
These cards were not allowed to go to the newspapers to 
which we had addressed them. It apparently suited the 
purpose of the Government to have us libelled as well as 
j)unished, and we, of course, were without redress. 

For ten days, we lived as I have described, in these dark- 
ened and dreary casemates. General Wool never came near 
our quarters, nor did he ever, either directly or indirectly, 
extend to us the slightest courtesy. He knew as well as any 
one, that we had been seized and were held by the Govern- 
ment in utter violation of all law, and that he had no decent 
pretext for permitting hims3lf to be made our custodian. 
He knew, therefore, that we were entitled to l)e treated with 
some consideration. But he ignored, alike, his obligations 
as a citizen and as a gentleman, and caused us to be subjected 
to indignities that it would have been needless to inflict on 
the convicted inmates of his own guard-house. After our 
return, we heard in several quarters, that General Wool had 
repeatedly said he acted in the matter strictly in accordance 
with his instructions from Washington. As implicit defer- 
ence to officers of the Government seems to be generally ex- 
acted in these days, the public may perhaps accept General 
AYool's explanation. For myself, I do not ; and I am sure 
there are many who will refuse to credit the statement that 
the War Department found time, at such a crisis, to send 
special orders to Fortress Monroe, consigning us to the case- 
mates in question, and directing the closing of the shutters, 
and the counting of the knives and forks. It seems more 
reasonable to suppose that General Wool had some discre- 
tionary powers in regard to the treatment he was to accord 
to his prisoners. 

Soon after we reached Fortress Monroe, we began to con- 



652 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

eider the probabilities of our release, and the means by wbicli 
we might obtain it. It was suggested that we should come 
to some understanding as to the course we ought to pursue, 
and then act together throughout ; but this proposition was 
not for a moment entertained. Almost every one of us 
thought that each- individual should act for himself, under 
his own sense of right. It was verj- soon evident, however, 
that we were all of one opinion. We regarded the outrage 
done us personally, as one about which we could make no 
compromise. We thought the contemptuous violation of the 
laws of our State and the rights of its people, required at our 
hands all the resistance we could offer. We saw that Mr. 
Lincoln desired, by arbitrary measures, to silence everything 
like opposition to his schemes, and we felt under an obliga- 
tion to thwart his iniquitous project, by showing that the 
people of Maryland could not successfully be so dealt with. 
It seemed clear to us, therefore, that it was the duty of each 
of us, both as an individual and a citizen, to continue to de- 
nounce and protest against Mr. Lincoln's proceedings, and 
to accept at his hands nothing, save the unconditional dis- 
charge to which we were entitled. Of this determination 
we notified our friends, during the first few days of our ini- 
jjrisonment. 

FORT LAFAYETTE. 

On the afternoon of the 25th of September, we left Fort- 
ress Monroe, on the steamer George Peabody. There were 
no other passengers, but the fifteen or twenty soldiers com- 
posing the guard. The boat was a Baltimore boat, and we 
received from her oflicers and crew the same courteous treat- 
ment that had been extended to us on board of the Adelaide.' 
We reached Fort Lafayette, in New York harbor, a little 
before dark, on the afternoon of the 2Gth, and were imme- 
diately transferred from the boat to the Fort. Fort Lafay- 
ette is built upon a shoal, or small island, lying in the Nar- 
rows, just between the lower end of Staten Island and Long 
Island, and two or three hundred yards from the latter. 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 653 

It is sometliing of an octagonal structure, though the four 
principal sides are so much longer than the others, that the 
building, on the inside, looks like a square. It is some forty- 
five or fifty feet high. In two of the longer and two of the 
shorter sides, which command the channel, are the batteries. 
There are two tiers of heavy guns on each of these sides, and 
above these are lighter barbette guns, under a temporary 
wooden roof. The other two principal sides are occupied, 
on the first and second stories, by small casemates ; all those 
on the second, and some of those on the first story, being 
then assigned to the officers and soldiers. There are, alto- 
gether, ten of these casemates on each story. The whole 
space enclosed within the walls is about one hundred and 
twenty feet across. A pavement, about twenty-five feet wide, 
runs around this space, leaving a patch of ground, some 
seventy feet square, in the middle. A gloomier-looking place 
than Fort Lafayette, both within and without, it would be 
hard to find in the whole State of New York, or, indeed, any- 
where. On the high bluff on Long Island stood Fort Hamil- 
ton, an extensive fortification, whose commanding officer, 
Colonel Martin Burke, had also jurisdiction over Fort Lafay- 
ette. Lieutenant Chas. 0. Wood, who had, a few months before, 
received a commission from Mr. Lincoln, was commanding 
officer at Fort Lafayette. The two principal gun-batteries, 
and four of the casemates in the lower story, were assigned to 
the j)risoners. Each of these batteries was paved with brick, 
and was, I should judge, about sixty feet long and twenty- 
four feet wide. The one in which I was first quartered was 
lighted by five embrasures, the breadth and height of each 
being about two and a half by two feet, and on the outside 
of these, iron gratings had been fastened. There were five 
large thirty-two-pounders in this room, which were about 
eight feet apart, and, with their carriages, occupied a great 
deal of space. Five large doorways, seven or eight feet high, 
opened upon the enclosure within the walls, and were closed 
by solid folding-doors. We were only allowed to keep two 
of these doors, at one end of the battery, open, and at that 



654 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

end only could we usually see to read or write. The lower 
half of the battery was in a state of perpetual twilight. The 
adjoining battery was, in all respects, like the one I have at- 
tempted to describe. The four casemates, which were occu- 
pied by prisoners, were vaulted cells, measuring twenty-four 
by fourteen feet in length and breadth, and eight feet at the 
highest point. Each was lighted hy two small loop-holes in 
the outer wall, about ten inches wide, and by a similar one 
opening on the inside enclosure. These casemates were both 
dark and damp, but they had fireplaces in them, while it 
was impossible to warm the gun-batteries, until stoves were 
put up, about a week or ten days before we left. 

The Fort could not be made to accommodate twenty 
people decentl}', beside the garrison. Nevertheless, there 
Avere always largely over a hundred crowded into it, and 
at one time, there were as many as one hundred and thirty- 
five. 

When I and my companions reached the wharf, we were 
met by Lieutenant Wood. I had seen him at Fort Hamilton 
some six weeks before, having gone there to try and see my 
father, who was then confined in Fort Lafayette. Wood 
recognized me, and requested me to introduce to him the 
gentlemen who were with me. This was the first and last 
occasion, as far as I know, on which he manifested a dis- 
position to treat us with civility. His bearing, at all times 
subsequently, was that of an ordinary jailer, except, perhaps, 
that he displayed even less good feeling than usually char- 
acterizes that class of people. We were marched into the 
gun-battery I have mentioned, and as the prisoners already 
there, many of whom were our acquaintances or friends, 
crowded around us, Lieutenant Wood requested all to leave 
the room, except those comprised in what he elegantly 
termed the " last lot." We were then required to give up all 
the money in our possession. We were each furnished that 
night with an iron bedstead, a bag of straw, and one shoddy 
blanket. When we had time to look around us, we found 
there were some twenty prisoners already quartered in the 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 655 

l)attery, and the number of inmates was therefore increased 
to about thirty-five by the addition of our party. The beds, 
"which were arranged between the guns, ahnost touched each 
other. If we had had other furniture, we should not have 
known what to do with it, three or four chairs and a 
couple of small tables being all that we could afterward 
find space for. 

We found, in the morning, that the gun-battery adjoin- 
ing ours was, if possible, more crowded than the one we 
occupied, and the casemates were as much crowded as the 
batteries. There were, as I have stated, four casemates, on 
the lower or ground floor, allotted to prisoners. Three of 
these contained nine or ten persons each, and into the fourth 
were thrust, at that time, very nearly thirty prisoners, who 
were either privateersmen, or sailors who had been taken 
while running the blockade on the Southern coast. These 
men had neither beds nor blankets, and were all, or nearly 
all, in irons. Their situation was wretched in the extreme. 

Such was the condition of things at Fort Lafayette when 
we reached it, and we were not a little astonished to learn 
from our friends, who had been there longer, that their situa- 
tion had been even worse a few weeks previously than it then 
was. To give a correct idea of the manner in which the 
Government dealt with gentlemen who, by its own admis- 
sion, had been arrested, or were then held merely by way of 
precaution, I insert the following letters, which had, before 
my arrival, been sent by my father to the parties to whom 
they are respectively addressed : 

" Fort Lafayette, N. Y., August 1, 18GL 
"Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. : 

" Sir : After the interview I had with you in Fort McHenry, on 
the 4th ult,, and in view of the assurances you then expressed, 
as to the manner in which I and the gentlemen with me, were 
entitled to be treated during our confinement by the General 
Grovernment, 1 cannot refrain from expressing my surprise at the 
condition in which, by its orders, we now find ourselves. On 



056 AMEKICAN BASTILE. 

Monday evening last, we were placed on board the steamer 
Joseph Whitney, with a detachment of soldiers ; all information 
as to our place of destination being positively refused, both 
to us and to the members of our families. Both G-eneral Dix 
and Major Morris, however, gave the most positive assurances 
that, at the place to which we should be taken, we would be 
made much more comfortable, and the limits of our confine- 
ment would be less restricted than at Fort McHenry. Yester- 
day, we were landed here, and are kept in close custody. No 
provision of any kind had been made here for us, and, last 
night, were shut up, eight persons, in a vaulted room, or case- 
mate, about twenty-four by fourteen feet, having three small 
windows, each about three feet by fourteen inches, and a 
close wooden door, which was shut and locked upon us soon 
after nine o'clock, and remained so until morning. Some of the 
party, by permission, brought on our own bedsteads and bedding, 
with which we had been compelled to supply ourselves at Fort 
McHenry; otherwise we should have been compelled to lie on the 
bare floor, the officers here stating to us, that they had no sup- 
plies whatevei', and could not furnish us with blankets, even of 
the most ordinary kind. We are distinctly notified that the 
orders under which the commanding officer of the post is acting, 
require him to impose upon us the following, among other re- 
strictions, viz.: Ave are allowed to receive or forward no letters 
from or to, even our own families, unless they are submitted to 
inspection and perusal by some militaiy officer; no fi'iend can 
visit us without the permission of Colonel Burke, whose quarters 
are not at this Fort, and no intimation has been given that such 
permission will be readily granted ; we are to receive no news- 
papers from any quarter; for one hour in the morning, and one 
iu the evening only, we are to be allowed to take exercise by 
walking about in a small squaj*e, not lai^ger than some sixty or 
seventy feet each way, surrounded on the four sides by the mas- 
sive buildings of the Fort, three stories in height. We were, on 
our arrival here, required to surrender all the money we had, and 
all wi'iting-paper and envelopes, our baggage being all searched for 
these and other articles that might be chosen to be considered as 
contraband. It is unnecessary to give any further details to 
satisfy you that our condition, as to physical comfort, is no bet- 
ter than that of the worst felons in any common jail in the coun- 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 657 

try. Having been arrested, and already imprisoned for a month, 
without a charge of any legal offence having been, as j'et, pre- 
feri-ed against me, or those arrested at the same time with me, it 
is useless to make any further protest to you against the con- 
tinuance of our confinement. But we do insist, as a matter of 
common right, as well as in fulfilment of your own declarations 
to me, that, if the Government chooses to exercise its power, by 
restraining us of our liberty, it is bound, in ordinary decency, to 
make such provision for our comfort and health, as gentlemen, 
against whom, if charges have been preferred, they have not 
been made known, and all opportunity for an investigation has 
been denied, are recognized in every civilized community to be 
entitled to. It is but just to Colonel Burke, and Lieutenant Wood, 
who commands the garrison here, that I should add that both 
of those officers have professed their desire to extend to us all 
comforts that their instructions will allow, and the means at 
their command will enable them to do. They have, however, 
each stated that the orders under which they act are imperative, 
and that their supplies of even the most common articles are, at 
present, very limited. I have written this letter on my bed, sit- 
ting on the floor, upon a carpet-bag, there being neither table, 
chair, stool, nor bench in the room. 

" I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

Charles Howard." 

" Fort Lafayette, N. Y. Harbor, August 7, 1861. 
" Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. : 

" Sir: I addressed a communication yestei-day to Colonel Burke, 
which he advised me he has forwarded to Washington. In reply, 
he has written a note to Lieutenant Wood, and instructed him 
to read it to us. The substance of this note was, that as some of 
the letters we had written to our families, if they were to find 
their way into the newspapers, ' might influence the public mind,' 
the Colonel had thought it proper to forward them all to the head- 
quarters of the army. He further stated that the orders he had 
received were, to ' treat us kindly, but keep us safely.' As t<» 
the first part, allow me to say, that whatever our condition may 
be, the minds of our friends, and of all others, who may feel any 
interest in the matter, will surely be less apt to be influenced 
unfavorably toward the Government by knowing the truth about 
42 



658 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

us, than they will be by theii* finding that our connnunications 
with them are intercepted, and that they are allowed to hear 
nothing whatever as to how we are treated. They will necessa- 
rily conclude that our imprisonment is exactly like that of those 
who used to be confined in the Bastile, (as in fact it is,) who were 
allowed to hold no communications except such as might be 
entirely agreeable and acceptable to their custodians. They will, 
of course, be kept in a continual state of great anxiety and 
uneasiness, and their sympathies will be constantly excited in 
our behalf The distress that will thus be inflicted upon our 
families, can be termed nothing less than cruelty. In the next 
place, it is hard to conceive how it can be reconciled with any- 
thing like the idea of ' kind treatment,' to prohibit our reception 
of all newspapers whatever, or the unrestricted delivery to us, 
without examination, of all letters that may be addressed to us; 
while it certainly cannot be shown that such prohibitions ai'e at 
all necessary to insure our 'safe-keeping.' The examination of, 
and the discretion claimed to retain letters to us from the nearest 
members of our families, as well as the preventing us from receiv- 
ing newspapers, can only be regarded as measures of punishment, 
adopted toward those who have been convicted of no oifence; to 
whom no opportunity has been afforded for an investigation of 
any charges that ma}^ possibly have been preferred against 
them; and for whose arrest, as our counsel were assured by 
General Banks, there were no other reasons than the allegations 
set forth by him in his proclamation; and the continuance of 
whose confinement, he stated to be solely a precautionary meas- 
ure on the part of the Government. These assurances were 
given by him at Fort McHenry. I will add that, whatever may 
be the disposition of the. officer commanding the post, and of 
those in this garrison, to 'treat us kindly,' they are restricted in 
doing so, within extremely narrow limits, either by other orders 
they may have received, or by the means of extending such treat- 
ment not having been supplied to th-em. We are isolated — at a 
distance of two hundred miles from our families, and all but a 
few friends; and with these we are permitted to have no inter- 
course. We are thrown upon our own resources — those of us 
who may have means, being allowed to find, at our own cost, 
within the Fort, decent, but very ordinary fare, while those who 
cannot, in justice to their families, afford such expense, have 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 659 

nothing but the ordinary rations of the soldier, which are of the 
coarsest kind. In consequence of the delay in other depart- 
ments of the service, in complying with the requisitions which 
the oflficers here have made, we should at this moment, though 
we have been here a week, have been without a chair or table 
but for the courtesy of Lieutenant Stirling, who, seeing our state 
of utter discomfort, has lent to us two chairs from his own quar- 
ters; and that of the wife of a sergeant, who has lent us a small 
stand. We are informed, however, that a supply of such articjes 
may be exjjected, for our use, from the city, this evening. Finally, 
there are six of us confined in one room, precisely similar, in all 
respects, to that described in my letter of the 1st inst., to which 
1 beg leave to refer you. 

"I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

Charles Howard." 

"Fort Lafayette, N. Y. Harbor, August 8, 1861. 
"Lieut.-Gen. Scott, Commander-in-Chief, U. S. A., 
Headquarters, Washington, D. C. : 

'^ Sii- : By a letter received last night from Mrs. Howard, I 
learn that in reply to the inquiries she made of you, she was in- 
formed that I would be 'decently lodged and subsisted here.' I 
wrote to the Hon. the Secretary of War, on the 1st inst., and 
again yesterday, advising him of the treatment which I and my 
fellow-prisoners are receiving. A perusal of those letters would 
satisfy you that these assurances are not verified. I need here 
only saj'^, that we are not ' decently lodged,' nor are we, in any 
sense of the words, 'decently subsisted' by the Government. 
The only proffer of subsistence made to us, has been to feed ns 
like the private soldiers of the garrison, or to allow us to procure 
other meals at our own cost. 

"I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

Charles Howard." 

" Fort Lafayette, N. Y. Harbor, August 12, 18G1. 
"Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. : 

"Sir: I laid before you a statement of the condition in which 
I am kept, in two former communications, the one on the 1st 
inst., and the other a few days subsequently; to which I beg 
leave to refer. And I should not again trouble you, had I not, 



660 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

since ray last, learned on the dii'ect authority of Lieutenant- 
General Scott, that an order had been given by the Department 
of State, that the political prisoners confined at Fort Lafayette 
shall be 'decently lodged and subsisted, unless they pi'efer to 
provide for themselves.' The ' decent lodging' furnished us, con- 
sists in putting seven gentlemen to sleep in one room, of which 
I have before given you a description. Within this, or at the 
door of it, we are required to remain, except during two houi'S 
in the day, or while taking our meals. 

" The 'decent subsistence' offei'ed us, in the alternative of our 
declining, or not having the means to provide for ourselves, is 
much inferior, in many respects, to that furnished to convicted 
felons in the Baltimore Penitentiary and Jail; and so far as I am 
informed, in any well-regulated prison in the country. 

" The officers here advise us, that this is the only fare which, 
under the instructions given, and the means allowed to them by 
the Government, they can offer. How far such treatment is in 
accordance with the insti'uctions of the Government, as expressed 
by the Department of State, with the assui"ance given to me 
personally by yourself, or with the promises voluntarily made 
by Major-General John A. Dix, and Major Wm. W. Morris, I 
leave it, sir, for you to judge. 

"I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

Charles Howard." 

"Fort Lafayette, N. Y. Harbor, August 19, 1861. 
"Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. : 

"Sir: My family were informed by Lieutenant-General Scott, 
under date of the 3d instant., that an order had been given 'by 
the Department of State, that the political prisoners confined 
at Fort Lafayette shall be decently lodged and subsisted, unless 
they prefer to provide for themselves.' About the same time, I 
was advised by Lieutenant-Colonel Burke, commanding this post, 
that his instructions were 'to treat us kindly, but keep us safely.' 
I beg leave, sir, to inform you that your order has not been 
complied with. It cannot be considered as 'decent lodging' to 
put a number of gentlemen accustomed to the comforts of life, to 
sleep in one low vaulted room, in or at the door of which they 
are confined, except for two hours in the twenty-four. The 
number sleeping in the room in which I am now placed, has 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 601 

varied from five to seven. There are now here, six of us. The 
only subsistence provided for us by the Government, as the 
alternative of providing for ourselves, has been the proffer of the 
single ration, distributed here to the private soldier, which is 
inferior, both in quantity and quality, to the fare furnished to the 
convicted felons in many of the jails and penitentiaries through- 
out the country. And this is the ' decent subsistence' offered to 
men who have been arrested, and are held on suspicion only, and 
who have not ceased to demand an open investigation of any 
charge that may possibly have been preferred against them ; a 
demand which has been jjersistently denied. I kave no grounds 
for imputing to Colonel Burke, or the officers of this garrison, 
any intentional disposition to treat us unkindly. But acting as 
they state themselves to be, in obedience to the orders which 
they have received, we are subject to various harsh and arbitrary 
restrictions, which arc utterly irreconcilable with the idea of 
'kind treatment,' while they are equally unnecessary for the 
insuring of our safe-keeping. I deem it useless, at present, to go 
more into details, as I have already described the condition in 
which we are placed, in three communications to the Hon. the 
Secretary of War, on the 1st, 7th, and 12th inst., respectively, 
and in one to Lieutenant-General Scott, on the 8th inst., of none 
of which does any notice a])pear to have been taken. Should 
you, sir, however, desire a fuller statement than I have here 
made, to be addressed directly to yourself, one shall be forwarded, 
as soon as I may be apprised of your wishes. 
"I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

Charles Howard." 

Not the sliglitest notice was taken of these letters by the 
persons to whom they were addressed, unless the few chairs, 
and sheets, and blankets, which w^ere furnished some time 
afterward, were distributed by special order from Wash- 
ington. 

To show how desirous the officers of the Government Avere, 
at that time, to keep, even from the families of the prisoners, 
all knowledge of their actual condition, I am permitted to 
cite this letter from Mr. Gatchell, one of the Police Com- 



6G2 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

missioners of Baltimore. Lieutenant "Wood refused to for- 
ward it to its destination. It was written in pencil : 

" Fort Lafayette, New York. 
"My dear Wife: I write on my knee, and with very little 
light — but I cannot help saying to you, so that you may know 
as soon as possible, that, notwithstanding the assurances given 
to us when we left Fort McHenry, we are altogether as uncom- 
fortable as it is possible to be. The gentleman in command has 
expressed his desire to do all in his power for our comfort, but 
he has not the means. Don't write until I give yoa notice, for 
at present we are cut oif from all communication with our 
friends, except writing to them, and our letters inspected. Love 

to all. Affectionately, 

Wm. IL Gatchell. 
"Wednesday Evening, 81st July." 

Lieutenant Wood, who had expressed his desire to do all 
in his power for the comfort of the prisoners, sent back the 
above letter, after the lafvse of two or three weeks, to Mr. 
Gatchell. lie informed Mr. Gatchell, when he returned it, 
that it had been forwarded to Washington for inspection, 
and that he was not allowed to let it pass. 

I had, during the visit to New York, of which I have 
already spoken, learned how outrageously my father and his 
companions were treated, and I published in the New York 
" Daily News " a full statement of the facts. It was never 
contradicted by the agents of the Government, and was ap- 
parently unnoticed by the public. At that time, also, I met 
Major Glitz, of the United States Army, who was then 
stationed at Fort Hamilton, who, in reply to some remarks 
of mine, admitted that there were not decent acconmioda- 
tions in Fort Lafayette for fifteen prisoners. Major Glitz 
came over to Fort Lafayette while I was myself a prisoner 
there, and I reminded him of that conversation. He unhes- 
itatingly replied that he was still of the same opinion. 

Shortly after the visit just mentioned, the prisoners were 
permitted to receive the daily papers, and were allowed the 
use of liquor, under certain restrictions. The liquors they 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 663 

chose to order were kept by Lieutenant Wood, and were 
given out, day by day, in moderate quantities. The Jay 
after we arrived, we sent to New York for beds, bedding, 
and other necessary articles of furniture. These we received 
a few days afterward. Before our arrival, those of the pris- 
oners who chose to do so, had obtained permission to board 
with the Ordnance Sergeant, who had been many years at 
the post. He and his family occupied two or three of the 
lower casemates, and he undertook to furnish us two meals 
daily, at a charge, to each prisoner, of a dollar a day. This 
arrangement most of our party adopted. The others pre- 
ferred or could not aftbrd to do otherwise than accept the 
Government rations, upon which the majority of the prisoners 
were living. These were of the coarsest description, and 
were served in the coarsest, style. A tin plate and a tin cup 
to each person constituted the whole table furniture. The 
dinners consisted of fat pork and beans, a cup of thin soup 
and bread, or of boiled beef and potatoes and bread, on alter- 
nate days. For breakfast, bread, and weak, unpalatable 
coffee, were distributed. This fare was precisely the same 
as that furnished to the soldiers. I more than once exam- 
ined these rations after they were served. The coiFee was a 
muddy liquid in which the taste of coffee was barely per- 
ceptible, the predominating flavor being a combination of 
burnt beans and foul water. The soup was, if possible, 
worse, the only palatable thing about it being the few stray 
grains of rice that could sometimes be fished out of each can. 
The pork and beef were of the most indifferent quality, and 
were at times only half cooked. Over and over again have 
I seen gentlemen who had been always accustomed to all 
the comforts of life, forced to turn away with, loathing from 
the miserable food thus provided for them. The fare fur- 
nished to those of us who boarded with the Sergeant was 
very plain, but good enough of its kind. 

On the 8th of October we addressed the following remon- 
strance to the President. The statements which it contains, 



664 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

were purposely made as moderate and temperate as was con- 
sistent with the truth. 

" Fort Lafayette, 8th October, 1861. 
"His Excellency the President of the United States: 

''Sir: The undersigned, prisoners confined in Fort Lafayette, 
are compelled to address you this protest and remonstrance 
against the inhumanity of their confinement and treatment. The 
officers in command at Fort Hamilton and this post, being fully 
aware of the grievances and privations to which we are obliged 
to submit, we are bound, for humanity's sake, to presume that 
they have no authority or means to redress or remove them. 
They, in fact, assure us that they have not. Our only recourse, 
therefore, is to lay this statement before you, in order that you 
may interpose to prevent our being any longer exposed to them. 

"The prisoners at this post are confined in four small case- 
mates, and two large battery-roo'ms. The former are about 
fourteen feet in breadth by twenty-four or thereabouts in length, 
with arched ceilings about eight and a half feet high at the 
highest point, the spring of the arch commencing at about five 
feet from the floor. In each of these is a fireplace, and the 
floors are of plank. The battery-rooms are of considerably higher 
pitch, and the floors are of brick, and a large space is occupied 
in them by the heavy guns and gun-carriages of the batteries. 
They have no fireplaces or means of protection from cold or 
moisture, and the doors are large, like those of a carriage-house, 
rendering the admission of light impossible without entire ex- 
posure to the temperature and weather without. In one of the 
small casemates, twenty-three prisoners are confined, two-thirds 
of them in irons, without beds, bedding, or any of the commonest 
necessaries. Their condition could hardly be worse, if they were 
in a slave-ship, on the middle passage. In each of two, out of the 
three other casemates, ten gentlemen are imprisoned ; in the 
third there are nine, and a tenth is allotted to it; their beds and 
necessary luggage leaving them scarce space to move, and render- 
ing the commonest personal cleanliness almost an impossibility. 
The doors are all fastened from six or thereabouts in the even- 
ing, until the same hour in the morning; and with all the windows 
(which are small) left open in all weathers, it is hardly possible 
to sleep in the foul, unwholesome air. Into one of the larger 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 665 

battery-rooms, there are thirty-four prisoners closely crowded; 
into the other, thirty-five. All the doors are closed for the same 
period as stated above, and the only ventilation is then from the 
embrasures, and so imperfect that the atmosphere is oppressive 
and almost stifling. Even during the day. three of the doors of 
one of these apartments are kept closed, against the remon- 
strances of the medical men who are among the inmates, and 
to the utter exclusion of wholesome and necessary light and 
air. In damp weather, all these unhealthy annoyances and 
painful discomforts are of course greatly augmented, and when, 
as to-day, the prisoners are compelled by rain to continue within 
•doors, their situation becomes almost intolerable. The under- 
signed do not hesitate to say, that no intelligent inspector of 
prisons can fail to pronounce their accommodations as wretchedly 
deficient, and altogether incompatible with health; and it is obvi- 
ous, as we already feel, that the growing inclemencies of the 
season which is upon us, must make our condition more and 
more nearly unendurable. Many of the prisoners are men ad- 
vanced in life ; many more are of infirm health or delicate con- 
stitutions. The greater portion of them have been accustomed 
to the reasonable comforts of life, none of which are accessible 
to them here, and their liability to illness, is, of course, propor- 
tionately greater on that account. Many have already suffered 
seriously, from indisposition augmented by the restrictions im- 
posed upon them. A contagious cutaneous disease is now spread- 
ing in one of the larger apartments, and the physicians who are 
among us are positive that some serious general disorder must 
be the inevitable result, if our situation remains unimproved. 
The use of any but salt water, except for drinking, has been, for 
some time, altogether denied to us. The cistern water, itself, 
for some d&js past, has been filled with dirt and animalcules, 
and the supply, even of that, has been so low, that yesterday we 
were almost wholly without drinking-water. A few of us, Avho 
have the means to purchase some trifling necessaries, have been 
able to relieve ourselves from this latter privation, to some ex- 
tent, bj'' procuring an occasional, though greatly inadequate, 
supply of fresh water from the Long Island side. 

It only remains to add, that the fare is of the commonest and 
coarsest soldiers' rations, almost invariably ill-prepared and ill- 
cooked. Some of us, who are better able than the rest, are per- 



666 



AMERICAN BASTILE. 



mitted to take our meals at a private mess, supplied by the wife 
of the Ordnance Sergeant, for which we pay, at the rate of a 
dollar per day, from our own funds. Those who are less fortu- 
nate, are compelled to submit to a diet so bad and unusual as to 
be seriously prejudicial to their health. 

"The undersigned have entered into these partial details, be- 
cause they cannot believe that it is the purpose of the Govern- 
ment to destroy their health or sacrifice their lives, by visiting 
them with such cruel hardships; and they will hope, unless forced 
to a contrary conclusion, that it can only be necessary to present 
the facts to you, plainlj^, in order to secure the necessary relief 
We desire to say nothing, here, in regard to the justice or injus- 
tice of our imprisonment, but we respectfully insist upon our right 
to be treated with decency and common humanity, so long aa 
the Government sees fit to confine us. 

"Commending the matter to your earliest consideration and 
prompt interference, we are your obedient servants, 



H. May, 

e. c. lowber, 

Wm. G. Harrison, 

RoBT. Mure, 

Jno. Williams, 

RoBT. M. Denison, 

Saml. H. Lyon, 

L. Sangston, 

G. 0. Van Amringe, 

Hilary Cenas, 

W. R. Butt, 

B. P. LOYALL, 

W. H. Ward, 
T. Parkin Scott, 
P. P. Raisin, 
Jno. C. Braine, 
J. H. Gordon, 

C. J. DURANT, 

M. W. Barr, 

R. T. DURRETT, 

J. Hanson Thomas, 
C. J. Faulkner, 



Chas. Howard, 
Geo. Wm. Brown, 
Wm. H. Gatchell, 
c. s. morehead, 
Jas. A. McMaster, 
Chas. H. Pitts, 
R. H. Alvey, 
S. T. Wallis, 
Austin E. Smith, 

F. K. Howard, 
J. T. McFeat, 
J. K. Millner, 
B. Mills, M.D., 
Andrew Lynch, M.D., 
H. R. Stevens, 

j. w. robarts, 
R. R. Walker, 
Chas, M. Hagelin, 
Bethel Burton, 
S. J. Anderson, 
Rich. S. Freeman, 

G. p. Pressay, 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 



667 



L. G. QUINLAN, 

W. E. Kearney, 
G. A. Shackleford, 
Jno. H. Cusick, 
Jos. W. Griffith, 
RoBT. Drane, 
Jno. W. Davis, 
T. S. Wilson, 
RoBT. Tansill, 
A. D. Wharton, 
Saml. Eakins, 
J. B. Barbour, 
Edw. Payne, 
A. Dawson, 
Jno. M. Brewer, 
Ellis B. Schnabel, 
H. B. Claiborne, 
F. Wyatt, 



E. S. Ruggles, 
Jas. E. Murphry, 
Henry M. Warfield, 
Geo. p. Kane, 
Chas. Macgill, M.D., 
Geo. W. Barnard, 

F. M. Crow, 

H. G. Thurber, 
E. G. Kilbourne, 
T. H. Wooldridge, 
L. S. Hobsclaw, 
Algernon S. Sullivan, 
Jas. Chapin, 
E. B. Wilder, 
A. McDowell, 
Wm. Grubbs, 
Chas. Kopperl, 
Thos. W. Hall, Jr." 



On the lOtii of October, the following note was sent to 
Lieutenant Wood, who ordered it to be read to the prisoners : 

" Fort Hamilton, New York, October 10, 1861. 
"Sir : I am directed by Colonel Burke to say to you, that you 
can inform the prisoners, that their petition has been forwarded, 
through Colonel Townsend, to the President United States. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

J. C. Lay, 
"First Lieutenant 12th Infantry. 

" P. S. — Colonel presumed that boat has brought you a supply 
of water." 

Of the gentlemen who signed the above remonstrance, 
which Colonel Burke thought proper to term a " petition," 
many were members of the Maryland Legislature ; a large 
immber were, up to the time of their incarceration, officers 
of the Navy; and others were men of high social or political 
position in their respective States. No reply was ever received 
from Washington. 



668 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

The rules to which we were expected to conform, were posted 
on the walls of the different batteries and casemates. They 
read as follows : 

''■ Regulations for the Guidance of Citizen Prisoners coffined at this 

Post. 

" Ist. The rooms of the prisoners will be ready for inspection 
at 9 o'clock A.M. All cleaning, etc., will be done by the prisoners 
themselves, unless otherwise dh'ected. All washing will be done 
in the yard. 

" 2d. No conversation will be allowed with any member of this 
garrison, and all communication in regard to their wants will be 
made to the Sergeant of the Guard. 

"3d. No prisoner Mall leave his room without the permission 
of the Sergeant of the Guard 

"4th. Prisoners will avoid all conversations on the political 
affairs of this countrj', within the hearing of any member of this 
garrison. 

" 5th. Light will be allowed in the prisoners' rooms until 
9.15 P.M. After this hour, all talking, or noise of any kind, will 
cease. 

"6th. The prisoners will obey implicitly the directions of any 
member of the guard. 

" Cases of sickness will be reported at 7 a.m. 

"8th. Any transgressions of the foregoing rules will be cor- 
rected by solitary imprisonment, or such other restrictions as 
may be required to the strict enforcement thereof 

(Signed) Charles O. Wood, 

Second Lieutenant, 9th Infantry, Commanding Post. 

"Fort Lafayette, New York Harbor, August 3, 1861." 

Shortly after we arrived at Fort Lafayette, the following 
additional order was issued : 

" No prisoners will be allowed to recognize or have any 
communication with any persons visiting this Fort, excepting 
when the visitor brings an order from the proper authority, per- 
mitting an interview, which interview will be held in the pre- 
sence of an officer, and not to exceed one hour; the conversa- 
tion during the interview will be carried on in a tone of voice 



FEANK KEY HOWAED. 669 

loud enough to be distinctly heard by the officer in whose pre- 
sence the interview is held." 

These rules were, with a single exception, strictly enforced. 
Those of us whose quarters were contiguous, were sultered 
to pass backward and forward, at will, provided we did not 
step off the pavement, which ran around the enclosure. But 
we could not visit the quarters of those who were on the 
opposite side of the Fort, without permission of the Sergeant 
of the Guard. We were only allowed to walk for one hour 
in the morning, and one hour in the afternoon, upon the lit- 
tle patch of ground within the Fort. Why the privilege of 
walking there, at all times, was denied us, it is hard to con- 
jecture. The space inside was so small, that, when we took 
our afternoon's exercise, it was literally crowded. The walls 
surrounding it were three stories high, and there was but 
one point at which egress was possible, and that was just at 
the guard-house, where the guard was always on duty. It 
was but a wanton and senseless restriction to confine us to 
the pavement in front of our quarters. At first, the prison- 
ers had to clean their own rooms, and to perform all other 
similar menial offices. Afterward, they were allowed, for an 
hour or two in the morning, to employ one of the soldiers, 
who, being unable to speak or understand the English lan- 
guage, maybe presumed to have been unfit for military duty, 
as he certainly was for any other. 

The most private communications regarding domestic af- 
fairs or business having to be subjected to the criticism of 
Lieutenant Wood, we preferred to be silent concerning such 
matters, be the consequences what they might. Such were 
the regulations to which the Government, or its agents, 
thought proper to subject its victims. 

Our complaints of the manner in which we were treated, 
had been persistent and decided ; and from time to time, 
released prisoners made them known to the public through 
the columns of various newspapers. One of these statements 
appeared in the ISTew York " Herald," of October 24. It 



670 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

did not contain a line that was not strictly true. On tlie 
26th, the following letters were published in the sanrie jour- 
nal, I presume, by Colonel Burke's directions. The first was 
addressed to the United States Marshal in New York. It 
was dated, the " Herald " said, on the 9th of October, 1861. 

"Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith a list of articles 
necessary for the state prisoners confined at this post, which you 
will please send me at your earliest convenience. 

" The water being almost entirely out, you will please send me 
a water-boat, with a supply of water to fill two cisterns, which 
will last until we have rain enough to obviate the difficulty. You 
cannot comply too soon, as it is an immediate necessity. 

"List of articles necessary for the comfort of prisoners: 100 
blankets, 200 sheets, 200 pillow-cases, 50 single mattresses, 50 
pillows, 50 iron bedsteads, 50 arm-chairs, 20 small tables, 50 wash- 
stands, 25 washbowls and pitchers, 10 small oval stoves and pipe, 
50 wooden buckets, 100 tin cups, 250 yards of rope carpet for 
laying on brick floors. I take this opportunity to inform you 
that the ship's gallej^ and other articles furnished by you, are 
very satisfactory, and answer the purpose for which they were 
required. 

" I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Charles O. Wood, 
Second Lieutenant Infantry, commanding Post. 

"Approved: Martin Burke, Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding 
Forts Hamilton and Lafayette." 

''Headquarters, Fort Hamilton, October 24, 1861. 
"Egbert Murray, Esq., United States Marshal, New York : 

"My attention was drawn to a statement in the 'Herald' of 
this morning, from a prisoner lately released from Fort Lafay- 
ette. Now, 1 wish to call your attention to the same article, 
and submit its further consideration to your judgment. 

" You and I both know how hard the Government has striven 
to make these prisoners comfortable, and if, in the whirlpool of 
business, they have been apparently neglected, we can both tes- 
tify as to the present ample preparations which are being made, 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 671 

not only to render them comfortable, but even to put it beyond 
the complaint of some who would be unreasonable. 

"In regard to myself, I can simply say that I have, to the ut- 
most of my ability, tried to do my duty, alike to the Government 
and the prisoners. 

"Lieutenant Wood is unceasing in his care and watchfulness, 
and, as you well know, ready, at any time, to do all he can for 
the comfort of those under his charge. 

" With regard to improper and false communications from 
released prisoners, if such there are, it is a question for the 
Honorable Secretary of State to decide how far such com- 
munications invalidate the parole of the person or persons 
making them. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Martin Burke, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding." 

It will be observed that Lieutenant Wood's requisition 
was only made the day after the date of the " remonstrance " 
which we had sent to Mr. Lincoln. "Whether it would have 
been made at all but for that remonstrance, may well be 
doubted. We had been over two weeks in Fort Lafayette 
before Lieutenant Wood thought proper to give any such 
evidence of that " care and watchfulness " which Colonel 
Burke attributed to him. " How hard the Government had 
striven " to make the prisoners comfortable may be judged 
by the foregoing narrative, and from the fact that the articles, 
for which Lieutenant Wood called on Marshal Murray, only 
reached the Fort some time about the date of Colonel Burke's 
letter, and we had then been imprisoned there nearly a month. 
That Colonel Burke made any special efforts to do his duty 
to the prisoners is utterly untrue. He paid a visit to the 
Fort about the 5th of August, and did not appear there again 
until about the 26th of October, and, but for facts which I 
shall subsequently mention, it is not likely that he would 
have paid the latter visit at all. Had he chosen to inspect 
our quarters more frequently, or give us opportunities of 
preferring our complaints, he might, had he so pleased, have 



672 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

mitigated, in very many respects, the rigors of our imprison- 
ment. I may add that no " communications from released 
prisoners," that I ever saw, were, in any particular, untrue 
or exaggerated, and the promptitude with which Colonel 
Burke threw out his sinister suggestion to the Marshal 
shows how anxious he was for the suppression of all such 
information. 

Our correspondence was suhjected to the strictest scrutiny, 
and letters written hy the prisoners were frequently returned 
to them, and generally because they contained facts which 
the Government did not desire should become known, or re- 
flections on the Government itself. On one occasion. Lieu- 
tenant Wood returned to me a letter which I had written to 
my wife. No reason was assigned for this ; but I was forced 
to the conclusion that it was sent back because Lieutenant 
Wood chose to consider it too long. It was a small sheet of 
note-paper. There was nothing in the contents to which he 
could object, and as two letters, of the same length as mine, 
were returned to the writers that morning, with a message 
from Lieutenant Wood that they were too long, I inferred 
that mine was sent back for a similar cause. To such annoy- 
ances we were continually subjected. At times our condition 
became so unendurable, that, finding our complaints unheeded, 
we expressed our sense of the indignities put upon us, in per- 
fectly plain language. On one occasion, when outraged by 
some fresh act of harshness or impertinence, I wrote a letter 
to a friend, in which, after describing our situation, I used 
this language : 

"To have imprisoned men solely on account of their political 
opinions, is enough to bring eternal infamy on every individual 
connected with the Administration; but the manner in which 
we have, been treated since our confinement, is, if possible, even 
more disgraceful to them. I should have supposed that, if the 
Government chose to confine citizens because their sentiments 
were distasteful to it, it would have contented itself with keep- 
ing them in custody, but would have put them in tolerably com- 
fortable quarters If I had been told, twelve months 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 673 

ago, that the American people would ever have permitted their 
rulers, under any pretence whatever, to establish snch a despot- 
ism as I have lived to witness, I should have indignantly denied 
the assertion ; and if I had been then told that officers of the 
Army would ever consent to be the instruments to carry out th«> 
behests of a vulgar dictator, I should have predicted that they 
would rather have stripped their epaulets from their shoulders. 
But we live to learn; and I have learned much in the past few 
months." 

This letter was returned, to nie tlie next morning, and on 
the following day one of the sergeants handed me a letter 
addressed by Colonel Burke to Lieutenant Wood, which he 
said the latter had ordered him to read to me particularlyj 
and to the other prisoners. I was unable to procure a copy 
of this letter, but remember the tenor of it. Colonel Burke 
expressed his surprise tliat I should have attempted to make 
him and Lieutenant Wood the medium through which t<!> 
cast reflections on their superior officers. He was also pleased 
to say that as my family had always borne a gentlemanly 
character in Maryland, he had not ex})ected that I would be 
guilty of conduct "so indelicate, to use no stronger terms." 
He concluded by insisting that the Government had beew 
and would be unremitting in its exertions to make us cont- 
fortable. 

I immediately sent him this note : 

"Fort Lafayette, October 23. 
"Lieutenant-Colonel Burke: 

"/SVr; Lieutenant Wood has communicated to me the cod- 
tents of your note to liim of this date. Permit me to sa}', ii-i 
reply to your allusions to the course I have thought proper t<i- 
pursue, that jou mistake me much if yon suppose (as you seem 
to do) that a mere desire to embarrass or annoy you, or the of- 
ficers under you, has prompted me to write the letters whie^i 
have been returned to me. The fact that little or nothing hais 
been done to make me or my fellow-prisoners decently comfort- 
able, is self-evident to any one who chooses to inspect our quar- 
ters, and it was on that account that I chose to speak iu teroii* 
43 



674 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

of indignant denunciation of those who are responsible for the 
privations I suffer. If I made, or sought to make, the officers 
of the garrison the 'instruments' to convey my complaints, it 
vras because I am denied any other alternative. The invidious 
allusions which you have deemed it necessary to make in regard 
to me, I need not, and do not propose, now, to discuss. But you 
will permit me to remind you that if you have duties to dis- 
charge, I have rights to vindicate. The only one of these which 
has not been absolutely destroyed, is the right of free speech 
within the narrow bounds of my prison, and this it is my duty 
and purpose to defend to the last. In the exercise of this poor 
privilege, I wrote the letters which I knew were to pass into your 
hands. As you have forwarded to the Adjutant-General the cor- 
respondence between Lieutenant Wood and yourself, I beg that 
you will do me the justice to fory^ard also this note. I remain, 
Your obedient servant, 

F. K. Howard." 

To tlie foregoing note, he wrote this reply : 

"Headquarters, Fort Hamilton, 
New York Harbor, 24th October, 1861. 

"Sir: Please say to Mr. Howard, that I cheerfully' forward 
his note of the 23d instant, to Colonel Townsend, agreeably to 
his request. 

"However much the efforts of this Government have fallen 
short of the expectations of the prisoners, to make them as com- 
fortable as they may desire, still I must say that every exertion 
is being made by the Government for that purjoose, and such 
exertions will certainly be continued. 

" Very respectfully, j^our obedient servant, 

Martin Burke, 
Colonel Commanding. 

" Lieutenant Wood, Commanding Fort Lafayette." 

My father, to whom Colonel Burke's letter had been read, 
wrote to the Secretary of War, denying Colonel Burke's 
allegations, and charging him with neglect of duty : 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 675 

"Fort Lafayet'p:, October 23, 18G1. 
"Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 

^^ Sir : The orderly sergeant has this morning, by order of the 
commanding officer of this post, read to me, in presence of a 
number of persons, a letter from Colonel Martin Burke to Lieu- 
tenant C. O. Wood, written in reply to a communication from 
the Lieutenant to him. Copies of both of these letters, Colonel 
Burke states, he has forwarded to Washington. I have asked 
for a copy of the Colonel's letter, but have not learned whether 
it will be given. In that letter, which is evidently intended as 
a rebuke to some of those confined here, Colonel Burke has 
undertaken to allude to the character and standing which my 
family have borne, for the purpose of introducing an offensive 
imputation, that one member of it has acted in a manner unbe- 
coming a gentleman. This charge, I claim the right distinctly 
and directly to repudiate, and I have also to demand that an 
inquiry be made under j^our authority into the conduct of Colo- 
nel Burke and Lieutenant Wood, in relation to their treatment 
of those confined at this place. I now formally charge Colonel 
Burke with conduct unbecoming an officer, and also with neglect 
of duty. He has not, so far as any prisoner here is aware, been 
within this Fort since on or about the 5th da}'' of August last; 
and in undertaking to judge of Lieutenant Wood's manner of 
discharging his duty toward the prisoners under his charge, he 
must have acted upon the statements of that officer himself. 
The surgeon of the post, and one other officer from Fort Hamil- 
ton, have occasionally exchanged a few words with some of the 
prisoners, but whenever any of the latter have attempted to 
make any representations to them of our condition and treat- 
ment, both of those officers have declared that those matters are 
not in any manner within the sphei-e of their duties. There 
has, therefore, been no inspection of this prison, in which up- 
wards of one hundred prisoners are confined, which would enable 
Colonel Burke to judge of the accuracy of the reports which he 
ma}' have received. In the absence of all such means of know- 
ledge or information. Colonel Burke has. stated, in an official let- 
ter, that Lieutenant Wood, an officer under his command, has 
'devoted his whole time to promoting the comfort of prisoners' 
here, or words to that effect. This statement I charge to be 



676 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

not warranted by the facts, and to be entirely incorrect. I charge 
and aver, that Lieutenant Wood has not only not devoted all, or 
even much of his time, to the promoting of our comfort, but that 
on the contrary, he has neither in his general bearing, nor in his 
conduct toward those consigned to his custody, paid that atten- 
tion to their comfort, which even under the circumstances which 
the Government deemed sufficient to warrant their imprisonment, 
they have a right to demand. The immediate cause of the re- 
buke attempted to be administered to us by Colonel Burke, was 
a letter written to a friend by Mr. F. K. Howard, my son. How- 
ever strong may have been the language used in that letter, it 
was the natural expression of feelings which are shared by every 
prisoner hei"e, whose opinion I have heard. Among these are 
many gentlemen of as high character and standing as an}' in the 
country. No intimation has been given by Colonel Burke, that 
any specific fact stated in the letter was not true. Should he 
controvert a single one, my relations to the writer of the lettei-, 
and the mention made by Colonel Burke in his official communi- 
cation, of my family, to say nothing of the assurances voluntarily 
tendered to me by j^ou in Fort McHenry, as to the mode in 
which the Government considered me as entitled to be treated, 
justify me in demanding an opportunity to substantiate it. Having 
already addressed to you three communications, from this place, 
of which no notice appears to have been ttiken, I should not 
again have troubled you, but that the issue I have now to make 
wuth Colonel Burke, involves matters of a personal character to 
myself, and that I make direct charges against him and Lieu- 
tenant Wood, dci"ogatory to their official positions, as officers of 
the army. 

"I hope, therefore, I may not be mistaken, in trusting that 
this communication may receive your early and serious at- 
tention. 

" I am sir, your obedient servant, 

Charles Howard." 

As usual, this letter was unnoticed by tlie antLorities in 
Wasiiington. 

In the miserable place whicli I have attempted to de- 
scribe, we passed the period between September 26th and 
October 30th. The batteries were very dark when the doors 



FRANK KEY H O W A 11 D. 677 

were closed, and very cold when the doors were open. We 
were locked up every night from dusk until sunrise; and 
lights had to be put out at nine and a half o'clock. In such 
a crowded place it was almost impossible to read or write. 
We found it difficult sometimes to keep ourselves warm 
enough even with the aid of overcoats. At times again, the 
atmosphere of the room would be positively stifling. Some 
one or more of the inmates were constantly under medical 
treatment, and it may be imagined how noisome and un- 
healthy the room often was. As prisoners were, from time to 
time, discharged from the casemates, the remaining inmates 
would invite one or more of those in the gun-batteries to till 
the vacancies, permission to do so being first asked of the 
Sergeant of the Guard. These invitations were given, not 
because the casemates v/ere less crowded than the batteries, 
but because the first stranger who should be brought in, 
would certainly be put in the place of the prisoner who had 
been last discharged, and, as the casemates were to be kept 
filled to their utmost capacity, those occupying them pre- 
ferred to have their friends and acquaintances for their com- 
panions. Small and crowded as the casemates were, they 
were, nevertheless, a little more comfortable than the bat- 
teries, from having fireplaces and w^ooden floors. I was 
fortunate enough to get into one of these casemates after I 
had been some two weeks in the Fort. 

About ten days before we left Fort Lafayette, Lieutenant 
Wood chose to make the prisoners responsible for the drunk- 
enness of one of the soldiers, and prohibited the further use 
of liquor, of any kind, among the prisoners. It was dis- 
covered, a few da^'S afterward, that some of the soldiers had 
stolen some of our liquor from the room in which Lieutenant 
Wood kept it, and to which the prisoners had no access. It 
was also discovered that the soldiers got liquor from the 
Long Island side, one of the crew of the boat having been 
detected in smuggling it into the Fort for their use. These 
facts sufliciently ac(^ount for the drunkenness of the soldiers, 
but Lieutenant Wood did not, on that account, relax his 



GTS ' AMERICAN BASTILE. 

new rule. While we were allowed the use of liquor, no 
iiLuse of the privilege came under mj observation, nor do 1 
helieve there was any. Just before the new restriction was 
imposed on us, I had received from New York two small 
boxes of liquor containing a dozen and a half bottles, w^hich 
])assed, as usual, into Lieutenant Wood's keeping. The 
prohibition which followed, prevented my using any of it, 
and, when we were about leaving, I requested Lieutenant 
Wood, through one of the sergeants, to send it on with me 
in charge of the officer who would have us in custody. This 
he did not do, and I never saw more of it. One or two of 
the prisoners afterward received, at Fort Warren, the liquors 
that they had left at Fort Lafayette, and one of the officers 
at the former post informed me that there were some 
l)Oxes on the bill of lading which did not reach Fort War- 
ren. Whether any of my stores were among these boxes, I 
am unable to say. I only know that I never received the 
liquor which Lieutenant Wood had, and that many of my 
companions suffered in the same way. 

Those of our friends who obtained passes to visit the Fort, 
did so with great difficulty. The Government seemed to 
have a strong disposition to exclude all strangers from the 
place. Six weeks before my arrest, I had made every effort 
to procure a permit to see my father, but could not succeed 
in getting one. Some New York politicians, however, were 
more favored. One of them, especially, Mr. William IL Lud- 
low, could enter the Fort at his pleasure, and see whom he 
pleased. On several occasions when he made his visits, he 
sent for different individuals, to whom he represented him- 
self as possessing great influence at Washington, and offered 
to try and procure their release, provided he was paid for it. 
What he received altogether I do not know ; but I do know 
that he received two retaining fees, namely, one hundred 
dollars from one gentleman, and one hundred and fifty dol- 
lars from another. From the latter he had a promise of a 
contingent fee of one thousand d'ollars. I do not believe he 
rendered any service to his clients, both of whom were taken 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 679 

to Fort AYarren and exchanged or released nearly four months 
afterward. 

The private soldiers at Fort Lafayette were worthy follow- 
ers of their commanding officer. They were uniformly as 
hrutal in their manners toward the prisoners as they dared 
to be. The sergeants, however, who were there when I was, 
were generally civil, and were as kind as they had an oppor- 
tunity of being. But, if the situation of those who were 
fortunate enough to enjoy good health was almost insupport- 
able, the condition of the sick was far worse. No provision 
whatever was made for them. Men suffering from various 
diseases were compelled to remain in their close and damp 
quarters, and struggle through as best they could. One man, 
" a political prisoner," had an acute attack of pneumonia, and 
lay for ten days in a damp, dark gun-battery, with some thirty 
other prisoners. One of the privateersmen was dangerously 
ill with the same disease in the casemate in which so many 
of them were huddled together. When I obtained permis- 
sion to carry him some little luxuries, I found him lying on 
the floor upon two blankets, in a high fever, and without 
even a pillow under his head. He would have remained in 
the same condition had not the " political prisoners " relieved 
his necessities. It was not until he seemed to be drawing 
rapidly toward his end, that he was sent to a hospital, some- 
where on Staten Island. 

Among the pettier annoyances we underwent, the trouble 
we had about our washing may be mentioned. At first, we 
w^ere allowed to send our clothes over to Long Island, where 
they were well enough washed, but, for some reason best 
known to himself, Lieutenant Wood interfered, and deter- 
mined to have the washing done inside of the Fort, under 
his own supervision. It must have been a very fair specu- 
lation for him, for his charges were high, and the work was 
so carelessly performed, that he must have employed the 
fewest hands possible to do it. What he charged me by the 
piece, I cannot say, for he helped himself to his bill before 
he handed over my money to the officer who escorted us to 



680 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

Fort lf\"arreii. Probably it would not have been altogether 
safe to have demanded an account, for one of the sergeants 
was put under arrest for complaining, as he stated to the 
prisoners, of Lieutenant Wood's prices for washing. On 
one occasion. Lieutenant Wood, in full view of the prisoners, 
kicked one of his boat's crew from the door of his own 
quarters, and continued the assault until the man had re- 
treated almost the whole length of the balcony upon that 
side of the Fort. I mention this as an illustration of his 
mode of dealing with his subordinates. Of the propriety 
and manliness of such a proceeding, on the part of the com- 
manding officer, others can judge for themselves. 

Many of the prisoners had friends and acquaintances in 
^ew York, but most of these were either afraid, or did not 
care to show any kindness or attention to parties who were 
under the ban of a suspicious and tyrannical Government. 
Some few people in that city had the courage and inclina- 
tion to render us any service in their power, and prominent 
among these was Air. Cranston, of the ISTew York Hotel; 
but the number of those who thus acted was singularly 
small. 

I cannot take leave of this portion of my narrative without 
recording the obligations under which the prisoners in Fort 
Lafiiyette must ever remain to Mrs. Geo. S. Gelston and 
Mr. Francis Hopkins, who lived on Long Island just oppo- 
site the Fort. They were unwearied in their efforts to alle- 
viate our situation. Day after day, for Aveeks and months 
together, they manifested their good will in the most gener- 
ous and substantial waj'. Food for those who were too poor 
to buy a decent meal, delicacies of all kinds for the sick, 
luxuries for others — all these were supplied by Mrs. Gelston, 
with a bountiful and untiring hand. To her tender sympathy 
and generosity, very many of the prisoners were indebted 
for comforts which were absolutely necessary to enable them 
to endure the privations to which they were exposed; and I 
know I but inadequately fulfil the wishes of every one of 
the former inmates of Fort Lafayette, in thus giving public 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 681 

expression to thanks which they had no opportunity to re- 
turn to their good friends in person. 

It is scarcely necessary to saj^, that our opinions as to the 
sort of resistance we should otler to our oppressors, under- 
went no change in consequence of our cruel imprisonment in 
Fort Lafayette. I found, on reaching there, that my father 
and most of his companions had taken the same view of 
their duty under the circumstances, as we had done ; and 
with every day's prolongation of our suiferings, we were the 
more and more convinced, that with a despotism so atrocious, 
we ought to make no compromise. 

THE STEAMBOAT "STATE OF MAK^E." 

On the afternoon of the 28th of Octoher, we were notified 
to prepare to leave Fort Lafayette on the following morning. 
We were then locked up in the various casemates and bat- 
teries for the rest of that day. The next morning our bag- 
gage was sent out to the wharf, we being still kept in close 
confinement, and a little after midday our baggage was 
brought back, and we were informed that the boat would not 
be readj^ that day. We were kept under lock and key all 
that day, and only permitted to go out to dinner. There was 
no conceivable reason for this last act of insolent harshness. 
On the morning of the 30th, we left the Fort on a small 
steamer, with a file of soldiers, and were carried up to Fort 
Columbus, on Governor's Island, and alongside of the steamer 
"•State of Maine," which was lying at the wharf. She was 
a very ordinary-looking river steamer, very low in the water, 
and very dirty. Her upper forward deck was covered with 
soldiers. She had been engaged in transporting soldiers and 
horses, and an experienced sea-captain of our party, who 
managed to evade the sentinels and go over the vessel, in- 
formed me that between-decks forward of the shaft, she was 
perfectly filth}^ There were about one hundred and ten of 
us, and we were sent on board of the " State of Maine," and 
directed to pass into the upper after-cabin. This cabin was 
long and dark, and in it there were about twenty-two or three 



682 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

small state-rooms, each containing two berths. It opened, 
aft, ujion a covered deck, Avhich was so small that, when our 
party collected there, it was considerably over-crowded. Just 
beneath the deck on which we were was the d-ining-saloon, 
along the sides of which ran a double tier of berths. There 
may have been about twenty or twenty-five of these alto- 
gether. The whole after part of the vessel could not decently 
accommodate the one hundred and ten prisoners then on 
board. To our astonishment we learned that not only were 
we to take on board some seventeen " political prisoners " 
from Fort Columbus, Init that the officers and soldiers who 
had been taken prisoners at Fort Ilatteras were to join us 
also. These numbered six hundred and forty-five. Remon- 
strance or complaint was useless. These additional prisoners 
were marched on board, the officers and " political prisoners " 
being sent to the after part of the l)oat with us, and the pri- 
vates being packed in forward of the cabin, wherever it was 
possil)le for them to find standing-room. 

We did not get away from Fort Columbus until about 4J 
P.M. While we were still lying at the wliarf, it seems to have 
occurred to some of those in charge of us, that it was part 
of their duty to offer us something to eat. A large wicker- 
basket, lined with tin, was then brought up full of water. 
It had been made to hold dirty plates and dishes, and had 
been used for that puri)Ose, apparently, time out of miud, on 
the steamer. A soldier then brought up a box of crackers, 
and another appeared with a tin plate, which was- several 
times re})lenished, containing large square pieces of boiled 
pork. Xine out of ten of these pieces were solid lumi)S of 
pure fat. A cou})le of old dirty-looking horse-buckets of 
cofiee were also provided. Such was the dimier furnished 
us. After this I saw no more of the pork, nor do I think 
there was any more on board, at least for the prisoners. 
Hunger compelled some of the prisoners to try and swallow 
the masses of blubber which were oftered them, but many 
were unequal to the eifort. A large |)roportion of the party 
dined, therefore, on crackers and water. When we started, 



F E A X K K E Y II O W A E D. 683 

we liad on board one liundred and twenty-seven " political 
prisoners," six hundred and forty-five prisoners of war, and 
one hundred Federal soldiers, besides the officers and crew of 
the steamer. I subseqviently learned that the only stores put 
on board for our subsistence consisted of one thousand and 
six pounds of hard bread, one hundred and twenty-eight 
pounds of coftee, and two hundred and fifty-eight pounds of 
sugar. 

Thus loaded down almost to the water's edge, we headed 
for Long Island Sound. The discomfort of our situation 
cannot be described. Moreover, we all knew, for the naval 
officers among us had so said, and the officers of the boat 
admitted, that the vessel was, in her then condition, utterly 
unseaworthy, and that, if a moderate gale should catch us at 
sea, the chances were largely in tavor of our going to the 
bottom. 

About dusk, I heard that supper had been prepared, in the 
dining-saloon, for the officers who had us in charge, and that, 
as far as it would go, those of us who chose to pay for it, 
could partake of it. It was, at the same time, stated tliat 
the officers of the boat had received no notice of the number 
of the prisoners she was to carry, and had not made the 
slightest provision for them. Under such circumstances, but 
very few of us could get a single meal in the dining-saloon. 
By dint of great patience and perseverance, I succeeded in 
getting some supper about nine o'clock at night. The next 
day, after many ineffectual efforts, I managed to get a ver}' 
late breakfast, and that was the last meal I got from the 
officers of the boat or Government. I was far better off", 
however, than the mass of my companions ; for Mrs. Gelston 
again stood our friend. She had heard we were to leave 
Fort Lafaj^ette, and had thoughtfully sent to those occu}»y- 
ing the casemate in which I was, a huge basket of provisions 
for our journey. It contained pheasants, chickens, tongues, 
pies, and other delicacies, and one of my room-mates, Mr. 
Warfield, and myself, consented, or, perhaps, volunteered, to 
take it under our especial charge during the journey. On 



684 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

these stores, I and my former room-mates lived for the ensu- 
ing two days, sharing them, however, as far as we could, with 
other friends. But our supplies were wholly insuillcicnt to 
meet any but the most limited demand, and we could extend 
our invitations to but few. Most of the prisoners had to put 
up with the hard bread and coffee during the two days and 
nights we remained on board. 

Just before dark, the clerk of the boat came on the after- 
deck to distribute the keys of the few state-rooms assigned 
to us, which, until then, had been kept locked. The North 
Carolina officers had the berths in the dining-saloon. There 
were, as already mentioned, about twenty-two state-rooma 
altogether in the upper after-cabin, and one or two of these 
were used for different purposes by the officers of the boat, 
and one or two others could accommodate but one person 
each. It was obvious that not more than one-third of us 
would get any beds. Here, again, I was very fortunate, for 
I happened to be standing by Governor Morehead, to whom 
the clerk gave the first key, and I was able to secure one. 
Those who failed to obtain berths, either in the dining-saloon 
or state-rooms, and they constituted a very large majority of 
the party, had no alternative but to drop down wherever 
they could, and try to sleep. After those who had beds had 
retired, the cabin presented a scene that no man who was 
present will be likely to forget. It was densely packed with 
men in every possible position. Upon each of the hard 
wooden settees, two or three persons had contrived to stow 
themselves in hall-recumbent positions that were little likely 
to afford them the desired rest. Those who had chairs were 
sleeping on them, some sitting bolt upright, and some leaning 
back against the sides of the cabin. But many could get 
neither chairs nor places on the settees, and these were lying 
or sitting upon the floor. Over the latter had been strewn 
bread and pieces of fat pork, all of which, being saturated 
with the expectorations of numberless tobacco-chewers, had 
been trampled into a consistent mass of filth by the feet of 
one hundred and fifty men. Some of the unfortunates, whom 



PRANK KEY HOWARD. 685 

absolute weariness had compelled to lie down on the floor, 
were lucky enough, as they esteemed themselves, to obtain 
some newspapers, which they spread between the dirt and 
their persons ; others had to take the floor as they found it, 
and the vacant spaces were so limited that many w^ere not 
even allowed a choice of places. As for the prisoners of war, 
the privates, they seemed to have slept, if they slept at all, 
wherever they could manage to stretch themselves. We 
were not suffered to go among them, but I could see from 
the door of the dining-saloon, the morning after we started, 
that they were lying about between decks, on piles of coal, 
coils of rope, or the l:)are floor. 

We reached Fort Warren about dusk on the evening of 
the 31st, and Colonel Justin Dimick, who commanded the 
post, came on board. He said that he had only expected one 
hundred and ten prisoners, that not the slightest notice of 
the coming of the prisoners of war had been given, and that 
he was wholly unprepared to receive ns. lie, however, 
ordered some three hundred of the North Carolina soldiers 
ashore, and said the rest of us must remain that night on 
board. Thus we had another cheerless and wretched night 
to look forward to. It passed like the previous one, and we 
were only too glad when day dawned, well knowing that 
whatever might happen, our situation could not be made 
worse. 

That morning, before we left the boat, I vainly endeavored 
to procure a glass of drinkable water. There was none to be 
had on board. The only supply of water left, was stale and 
foul, and was used for washing, though not flt for that pur- 
pose. I was too thirsty to be particular, and having dis- 
guised the color and flavor of a glassful by pouring into it a 
teaspoonful of essence of ginger, I made shift to swallow it. 
I then breakfasted on the scraps which remained in our bas- 
ket, and prepared to go ashore. 

This account of the privations to which we were sulijected 
on that occasion, I have neither over-stated nor over-colored. 
On a convict ship oar position could have been no worse, and 



686 A M E E I C A N B A S T I L E. 

even on such a vessel, more regard would be manifested for 
the safety of tlie prisoners than was shown for ours. And 
all this was endured by numbers of gentlemen who would be 
disparaged by being compared, in point of character, intelli- 
gence, and position, with Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton, or Mr. 
Seward. It was an extremely fortunate thing that the 
weather was fine, and the sea calm, after we passed out of 
the Sound. Wretched as our situation was, it would have 
been aggravated tenfold, had many of the prisoners suffered 
from sea-sickness. We were, however, spared such addition 
to our troubles. I need not, therefore, surmise how miserable 
in such a case our lot would have been, nor what would have 
been the inevitable result of our being overtaken by such a 
gale as set in the very night after we reached Fort Warren. 
With a very little forethought and trouble, and a very slight 
expenditure of money on the part of the Government, or of 
those of its ofi&cers who were charged with our transporta- 
tion to Fort Warren, our journey might have been made in 
tolerable decenc}", if not comfort. As it was, we were treated 
with as little consideration as cattle. The brutality that 
characterized the higher officers of the Government, seemed, 
as far as we could then judge, to be equally conspicuous in 
most of their subordinates. 

FORT WARREK 

When we reached Fort Warren, late in the afternoon of 
the 31st, Colonel Dimick came on board, as I have stated, 
and informed us that he had only expected about a hundred 
" political prisoners." He invited several gentlemen to go 
ashore and see the quarters he had set apart for us. Among 
these were Commodore Barron, Mayor Brown, and Messrs. 
Faulkner, Charles Howard, and Kane. They hurriedly in- 
spected the various rooms by candle-light, and after about an 
hour's absence they returned. That night they selected their 
quarters and their room-mates, as Colonel Dimick had re- 
quested them to do. 

About ten o'clock the following morning Ave landed, and 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 687 

were marched into the Fort, where the roll was called, and 
we were shown to our respective quarters. The Fort is situ- 
ated on an island containing forty-three acres, nearly the 
whole of which is covered by the fortifications. The interior 
work is built in the- most substantial manner, of granite, and 
encloses a space of some five or six acres. It is an irregular 
structure, which it is impossible for me to describe accurately. 
The five principal sides are each about three hundred feet 
long. Two of these sides are divided into deep casemates, on 
a level with, and opening on the parade-ground. One other 
side contains rooms intended for officers' quarters. There 
were ten of these rooms on a level with, and looking out on 
the parade-ground, and immediately in the rear of these 
were ten more fronting on the space between the curtain and 
an exterior work. Beneath these tAventy rooms, both in 
front and rear, there were twenty more of the same size as 
those above, the inner or front ones being, of course, base- 
ment rooms, and opening upon an area about seven feet wide 
and ten or twelve deep, and those in the rear looking out on 
the space between the interior and exterior works above men- 
tioned, which was below the level of the inside enclosure. 
Between the front and rear rooms, above and below, there 
were also two very small dark rooms, intended, I j)resume, 
for store-rooms. All the interior or front rooms were lighted 
b}'' large windows, and those in the rear by narrow loop-holes, 
about six inches wide at the outer edge, and four or five feet 
liigh. The upper rooms were all neatly finished, and those 
in front were very light and airy. The lower rooms had 
cement floors, and were much less desirable. Sixteen of the 
rooms I have attempted to describe were assigned to the 
" political prisoners," and the officers who were prisoners of 
war, viz. : four front rooms opening on the parade-ground, and 
four immediately beneath them, and eight just in the rear 
of these, together with the smaller rooms or closets which 
separated the front and rear rooms. One large, long case- 
mate, in another side of the Fort, was devoted to the same 
purpose. Commodore Barron and several of the army officers 



688 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

^vith lilni. ami ^^arsllal Kane, selected one of tlie four upper 
front rooms ; the Xortli Carolina officers of the highest rank 
another ; the Baltimore Police Commissioners another ; and 
the Mayor of Baltimore and Messrs. Morehead and Faulkner 
the fourth. These several parties having, in accordance witli 
Colonel Dimick's reqnest, made choice of their rooms, also 
selected as their companions, in their new quarters, those who 
had been their room-mates at Fort Columbus and Fort La- 
fayette. I thus found myself again among my old room-mates. 
The other prisoners, generally choosing their own room- 
mates, were quartered iu the other rooms and in the casemate 
before mentioned. The crowded condition of the room I 
occupied will illustrate the situation of our fellow-prisoners. 
This room was nineteen and a half by fifteen feet, and one of 
the little closets of which we had the use was ten by ten 
and a half feet. Into this room and closet, nine of us were 
crowded. So close together were our beds, that it would 
have been impossible to have put ani)tlicr one in the room 
without blocking up the doors. There was scarcely space 
enough for another, even in the middle of the floor. Those 
who s:ot into the Ions casenuite were far worse otf than 
their other fellow-prisoners. This casemate was, I shonld 
suppose, less than tifty feet long and less than twenty wide, 
and so crowded was it, that the inmates were compelled to 
tjeep in bunks which were arranged one above the other, 
in three tiers. They had also to cook their meals iu the 
same room. 

^Vheu we were installed in our quarters we began to look 
around to see what sort of provision had been made for us. 
As we had been told that at least a hundred of us had been 
expected, we naturally took it for granted that something 
had been done to make us tolerably comfortable. Our former 
experience ought to have prevented us from entertaining any 
such hopes, but we were not long under any delusion. No 
preparation luul apparcr.tlv been niade lor one single prisoner, 
except that tires were kindled in the various rooms. Colonel 
Dimiclc, whose demeanor toward us was on all occasions that 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 089 

of a gentleman, seemed to be annoyed at the position in wliich 
he found himself. lie informed us of his inability to provide 
for us decently, and expressed his regret at the fact. But 
his orood feelinsf could not much alleviate our situation. Kot 
a bedstead, bed, blanket, or chair was then furnished any (>1" 
us. Those of us who had carried on the bedding \\c had 
purchased at Fort Lafayette, were able to lend a few articles 
to our friends, but the great majority of the prisonci-s were 
forced to sleep upon the floor, upon their great-coats and tlio 
few cloaks and shawls they happened to have or could Ijorrow. 
This state of things continued two or three weeks, at the end 
of which time, Colonel Dimick managed to have the furni- 
ture, which had been so tardily provided for us at Fort La- 
fayette, sent on to Fort Warren. In the mean time, many 
had, at their own expense, supplied themselves from Boston 
with necessary articles, but the others had to shift for them- 
selves as they best could, until the arrival of the furniture 
from our former prison. The day we landed, the only dinner 
provided for us consisted of a barrel of crackers and a cou|ile. 
of raw hams, which were placed on the head of a fi(nn'-barrel, 
in front of our quarters. AVe were informed that the (Jovorn- 
ment would allow us the ordinary soldiers' rations, but that 
we would have to cook them ourselves, and a place wonhl 
be given us for the purpose. Mr. Hall, the purveyor for the 
laborers and officers at the post, agreed to furnish us that 
evening with supper. It consisted of cold, boiled salt beef, 
bread, and bad coiiee, which however, we were hungiy enough 
to eat Avith considerable relish. This was the only meal we 
had that day, or until noon the day following. Isot know 
ing exactly how we could manage our rations after they 
should be distributed to us, a number of us, by Colonel 
Dimick's permission, requested Mr. Ilall to furnish us two 
meals a day, at least until we could make some other arrange- 
ment. This he agreed to do at the rate of one dollar a day 
each, and a good business he must have made of it, for scan- 
tier and worse entertainment we had never seen provided at 
anything like half the price. We were forced, ho\^ever, to 
44 



690 AMERICAN B A STILE. 

continue this arrangement for a week, at the end of which time 
we took matters into our own hands. We obtained the use 
of two casemates and cooking-stoves, and established two 
clubs or messes, and engaged some of the ISTorth Carolina 
]»risoners to cook and wait in the mess-room, and also to 
attend to our quarters. As there was a Government boat 
runnino^ regularly between the Fort and Boston, we ordered 
daily supplies of meats, milk, and vegetables, and, with the 
addition of our rations, were enabled to live with reason- 
able comfort. After the North Carolina prisoners were ex- 
changed, we from time to time got servants from Boston, 
almost invariably foreigners, and continued, though at an 
increased expense, to live as we had previously done. 

In speaking of our treatment, I speak solely of the " poli- 
tical" or " state prisoners." As I know nothing of the way 
in which prisoners of Avar are entitled to be, or usually are 
dealt with, I have nothing to say upon that point. I will 
merely state that the ISTorth Carolina prisoners, numbering 
about six hundred, exclusive of their commissioned officers, 
were confined in eight casemates. They were thus terribly 
crowded. During the first two or three days they had 
scarcely anything to eat. I do not know the cause of this, 
but the fact is, that they absolutely suft'ered from hunger. 
Afterward they received their rations regularly, and large 
Ijoilers were placed in front of their quarters for them to 
cook in. These were in the open air, and not in any way 
sheltered, and the men had to cook there in all kinds of 
weather, during the time they remained, which was until 
they were exchanged, in February, 1862. 

In front of the range of rooms occupied by the " political 
prisoners," and about ten yards ofi:', sentinels were placed,, 
and beyond them we were not allowed to go. The officers 
who were prisoners of war, were permitted to M^alk about 
the whole island, both w^ithin and without the Fort, on their 
parole ; but we were confined to the space, some hundred 
yards long by ten wide, between our quarters and the line 
of sentinels just mentioned. This regulation was enforced 



FKANK KEY HOWARD. 691 

for nearly six months, and, as we understood at the time, 
was specifically directed by the Government. During that 
time, we were kept strictl}^ within those narrow bounds. 
Why men who were taken with arms in their hands were 
less rigorously treated than we, was obvious. The Confed- 
erate Government could exact certain rights for them, but 
there was no power or law in this part of the country to 
protect us. The day after our arrival, I wrote to my wife 
this hurried account of our journey from Fort Lafayette : 

" Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, Saturdaj", November 2. 
" We have arrived here safely, and a more uncomfortable set 
of human beings have never, I trust, been collected before in 
these quarters. We left Fort Lafayette on Wednesday morning, 
and, together with the prisoners from Fort Columbus, came here 
on one of the Sound steamers. There were about four times as 
many on board as the vessel could accommodate, and the only 
food which the Government provided was bread and fat pork 
and a liquid called coffee. I saw the most prominent gentlemen 
of JVIar^-land, Kentucky, and Virginia drinking what purported 
to be coffee, out of a dirty horse-bucket, while water was served 
out to them from a lai^ge tin, such as is used to hold the greasy 
plates after dinner. Pieces of fat, about two inches square, were 
handed round to those who could swallow them, and a man's 
fingers constituted the table furniture. A number of elderly 
gentlemen could not at night find a place to sit ; and scores of 
my friends slept for two nights upon the floors, which were the 
filthiest that you are ever likely to see. At this place no pro- 
vision whatever had been made for us. Many of the rooms are 
not fit for the accommodation of human beings in the winter 
months in this climate. No beds have been furnished, and none 
are to be — a sack of straw bein^ the only thing which the Gov- 
ernment will supply. Even such bedding as this has not arrived. 
We have been here twenty-four hours, and most of the party 
have lived on a little raw ham and bread, and have slept on the 
floor. Not even a blanket has been given us. 1 have managed 
to get along better than most of my fellow-prisoners, for I 
brought m}' mattress and a basket of provisions. I also was 
lucky enough to secure a state-room. The privations I have 



692 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

suffered, serious as they were, have been light compared to tliose 
which numbers of my companions have endured. It is now ten 
o'clock, and we are as yet vainly trjMng to g-et some breakfast, 
which a caterer from Boston has agreed to furnish. I thus give 
you llie brief outlines of this phase of our story. It is not ne- 
cessary' that I should supply the comments. I will write again 
when I have had a little time to look about me. The officers, as 
far as I can judge, are polite and kind, which in my late expe- 
riences is a novelty. It has been our misfortune to meet but 
few, if any, gentlemen, thus far, and a change in that particular 
will be grateful." 

I give this letter at length, because it was returned to me 
by order of Colonel Diniick, who sent me word that liis in- 
structions prohibited the transmission of any such intelli- 
gence as I had attempted to send my family. It is evident, 
from the suppression of so simple a statement of facts, that 
the Government had determined to resort to all the means 
in its power to prevent the victims of its tyranny from 
making their situation known to the public. We were spe- 
cifically ordered not to discuss public affairs in our letters. 
It is needless to recapitulate all the admonitions we received 
upon this point. The following examples will suihce. On 
the 8th of April, 18G2, a letter was returned to a " political 
prisoner " with this note, in Colonel Dimick's handwriting : 

" The Government require the gentlemen at Fort Warren to 
avoid, in their correspondence, discussing the ditferences between 
the North and South, or giving any account of the battles between 
the contending forces. This letter is, therefore, respectfully re- 
turned." 

An order relating to the letters of prisoners was posted in 
our quarters on the 10th of April, which concluded thus : 

"Military and political subjects must be avoided in all coi*- 
respondence. 

Lieut. James S. Casey, U. S. A., 
Officer in Charo-e." 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 693 

Notwithstanding these regulations, we continued to dis- 
cuss, from time to time, the forbidden subjects ; and, as a 
large number of letters were to be inspected every day, many, 
which were in violation of the above orders, found their way 
to our friends. But this happened, I suppose, because the 
examining ofhcer had not time to read the letters very care- 
fully, for the rules were never directly relaxed or modified. 

After we had been a few weeks in Fort Wai'ren, an order, 
touching the employment of counsel by prisoners, and signed 
by Mr. AVilliam II. Seward, the Secretary of State, was read 
to us by the United States Marshal for the district. We were 
unable to procure an exact copy of that order, but we after- 
ward obtained a copy of a similar one, which was read some- 
where about the same time, to the prisoners then in Fort 
Lafayette. This latter order was signed by a Mr. Seth C. 
Ilawley, Chief Clerk of the Metropolitan Police Commis- 
sioners of 'Sew York, who subsequently visited us also. lie 
was acting, as he stated, under Mr. Seward's directions. 
(See Appendix.) 

From time to time, offers were made to different prisoners 
to discharge them conditionally. Sometimes an oath of alle- 
giance, w^hich bound the party taking it to support the 
" United States Government," notwithstanding any action 
which his State might take, was proposed as the price of his 
release. This was almost uniformly declined. Then various 
forms of parole were proposed, which bound the respective 
parties either not to go into the seceded States, or not to go 
into the Border States, or not to correspond with any one in 
any of those States, or not to take up arms against the Gov- 
ernment. The simplest parole, in form, merely imposed an 
obligation not to give " aid and comfort to the enemies in 
hostility against the United States;" but, as any discussion 
of the corruption or imbecility of the Administration was 
regarded by it as treasona,ble, this form of parole w^as, prob- 
ably, for its purposes, the most comprehensive. Many of the 
prisoners accepted some or other of the terms proposed, and 
were released ; others declined to make any concessions what- 



694 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

ever, insisting that, as tliey had been arbitrarily imprisoned, 
they would not recognize the right, which Mr. Lincoln 
claimed, to impose upon them any conditions. It is to those 
who took and maintained this ground that the ensuing por- 
tion of this narrative mainly refers. 

One fact, however, concerning the negro servants of the 
prisoners of war, may be worthy of mention. There were 
with the officers, who were taken at Fort Ilatteras, three 
negroes, two of whom were slaves. At Fort Columbus, the 
Government had offered them their discharo-e on takins; the 
oath of allegiance, which they had declined. At Fort War- 
ren, the oath was again tendered to them, and again refused. 
Finally, they were offered their liberty, on giving their sim- 
ple parole not to do anything hostile to the Government. 
They inquired whether, if they w^ent out on such conditions, 
they w^ould be furnished with passes to go South. They 
were told these could not be granted, and they then refused 
to accept the terms offered them. They were bent on return- 
ing to their old homes in ISTorth Carolina ; and one of them 
took very high ground in the matter, saying, in reply to an 
inquiry about his refusal to give his parole, that he " wanted 
to go out honorable." They subsequently went back to ISTorth 
Carolina with the Fort Ilatteras prisoners, when the latter 
were exchanged. 

On the 14th of November, a notice was posted in the door- 
way of our quarters, signed by Mr. Seth C. Ilawley, apprising 
us of his intention to visit Fort Warren for the purpose of 
inquiring what prisoners would take the oath,, as a prelimi- 
nary to the investigation of their several cases. On the fol- 
low^ing day Mr. Ilawley appeared, and in pursuance of his 
purpose, called on the prisoners in their quarters. Almost 
every one rejected his proposition, many taking occasion to 
couple with their very unequivocal refusal, expressions of 
contemp)t for Mr. Ilawley and those who sent him. 

Several of the members of the Legislature, desiring to put 
in writing the reasons for their refusal to submit to the con- 
ditions which Mr. Ilawley came to propose, signed and handed 



FRANK KEY H O W A E D. 695 

to liim a paper wliich Mr. S. T. Wallis liad drawn up as hia 
own answer to the inquiry : 

"Fort Warren, November 15, 1861. 
"Mr. Seth C. Haavley: 

">SVr: A notice Bigned by you appeared, this afternoon, upon 
the walls of the quarters in which we are confined. We quote 
':t, in full, as follows, viz. : 

" ' The undersigned, appointed by the Secretary of State, U. S., 
to examine into the cases of tlie political prisonei'S at Fort War- 
ren, desires those prisoners to be prepared, to-morrow, to ansAver 
the question whether they would severally be Avilling to take the 
oath of allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the 
United States, if they should be set at liberty. Further inquiry 
into each case to depend upon the answer. To-morrow there 
will be an opportunity to answer the question. 

(Signed) Seth C. Hawley. 

" ' Fort Warren, November 14, 1861.' 

" We presume we are among those whom you designate as 
'political prisoners,' and supposing that you may call upon us, 
to-morrow, to answer the inquiry which you have indicated, we 
desire to furnish our reply in our own language, in order that we 
may not be misunderstood or misrepresented. 

"As we understand jonr notice, 'further inquir}- into each 
case' is to depend upon the willingness of the individual to take 
the oath which you propose; that is to say, that no man's case 
will be inquired into, unless he first signify his willingness to 
swear as required. We have now been in confinement for more 
than two months. We were arrested, without process or form 
of law, upon the alleged authority of the Secretary of State of 
the United States, who clearly has no lawful authority, whatever, 
in the premises. We have been dragged from one fortress of the 
Government to another, by military force, and have been dealt 
with in a manner which would have been indecent if we had 
been convicted felons, instead of freemen, accused of no ofi'ence 
against the laws of our country. We have been separated from 
our homes and families, and exposed to constant suffering and 
privation, to the injury of health, the prejudice of our interests 
and good name, and in flagrant violation of every riglit which 



G96 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

"WO have inherited as American citizens. More than this, as 
memWers of the LegisUxture of Maryland, we have been unhiw- 
fully withdrawn from the performance of our official duties, in 
derogation of the constitutional rights of our State and her peo- 
ple. To tell us, after all this, that our 'case' has not even been 
inquired into, thus far, and that it will not even now be made 
the subject of inquiry, by the Government at whose hands we 
have suffered so much wrong, unless we will first submit to con- 
ditions as unlawful and arbitrary as our arrest and imprisonment, 
is to offer to each of us an insult, which we should forfeit our 
self-i'espect if we did not repel. 

" If we are accused of having committed any offence known to 
the law, we are entitled to be lawfully and publicly charged there- 
with, and to be tried — not bj-you, nor by the Secretary of State — 
but by the constituted tribunals of the district from which we 
liave been violentlj^ and illegally removed. If we have been 
guilty of no crime against the law, we are entitled to be dis- 
charged, without any terms or conditions; and the Secretary of 
State — if you really represent him — is only visiting us with an 
additional outrage, by attemj^ting to impose such upon us. 
" We are 3^our obedient servants, 

E. Ct. Kilbourn, Wm. G. Harrison, 

S. Teaokle Wallis, Henry M. VVarfield, 

T. Parkin Scott, J. Hanson Thomas." 

The reasons wljieli influenced the jmrties to tlie foregoing 
(locunient were the same that operated npon all those who 
declined to make any compromise \vith the Administration. 
We still felt, in addition to our own sense of personal wrong, 
that the cause of constitutional liberty in our State was at 
stake, and that, as far as our efforts would avail, we were 
bound to defend it. A refusal to acquiesce in the proceed- 
ings by which the Government had outraged the people of 
^NFaryland, was the only mode of resisting arbitrary power 
that was left to us, and we had no hesitation in adhering to 
our course. But while w^e, in Fort Warren, wore thus en- 
deavoring to discharge what w^e felt to he our duty in such 
an exigency, we were hopefully looking to those who were 
differently situated to support us. Armed resistance on the 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 697 

part of the people of our State would, we well knew, have 
been utterly vain ; but we hoped there would, at least, be a 
continual and vigorous assertion of their rights from all 
whose position gave them any influence, or any opportunity 
of making themselves heard. We thought it possible that 
when Congress met, it might manifest a disposition to compel 
Mr. Lincoln to surrender the power he had usurped, and 
conform thenceforth to the plain dictates of the Constitution 
and the laws. In this we were disappointed. Some few 
brave and honest men manfully denounced the course of the 
Administration, but an overwhelming majority of both 
Houses, while uttering unmeaning platitudes about our 
"free Government," our " indestructible Constitution," and 
our "inalienable rights," subserviently supported every des- 
potic and infjxmous act of Mr. Lincoln and his advisers. 
Others held their peace. 

After the Proclamation of February 14th (see Executive 
Orders, Xos. 1 and 2, Appendix) was issued. Colonel Dimick 
was authorized to release a number of persons upon their 
signing a parole not to give " aid or comfort to the enemies 
in hostility to the United States ; " and some weeks after the 
appointment of Mr. Stanton's commission, orders were received 
for the release of other parties upon the same conditions. A 
number still refused to accept the profiered terms. Two of 
them, Messrs. Wm. H. Gatchell and Wm. G. Harrison, gave 
their reasons for so refusing, in the following letters to Mr. 
Stanton : 

"Fort Warren, February 22, 1862. 
" Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 

'SS^;>; I have been arrested and imprisoned for nearly eight 
months, in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United 
States, having never committed any offence against either, 

"I am not, in any legitimate sense, the subject of an amnesty. 
That, as I have always understood, is an oiler of pardon by the 
offended to the offending party. The proclamation and the parole 
are to be taken together, and they reverse the order of things. 

"I cannot consent to any terms which even seem to justify 



698 AMERICAN B A S T I L E. 

the action of the Government toward me, or will place mc in 
any ditlerent condition from all other free citizens. 
" Your obedient servant, 

Wm. II. Gatciiell." 

"Fort Warren, February 22, 1862. 
•'Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: 

"Sir: As a member of the Legislature of Maryland, I was 
taken from my dwelling-house, at midnight of the 12th of Sep- 
tember last, by the military' police of the city of Baltimore, and . 
have since been incarcerated in several prisons, and now nearly 
four months in this one. Fort Warren. I was told my arrest 
was by orders from Washington. I refused any release, except 
an unconditional one, because I will not seem even to acquiesce 
in an act which has violated one of the most sacred bonds of our 
Government. (Vide Article 4th, Amendments to the Constitu- 
tion.) I have been arrested in defiance of law, punisshcd without 
charge of crime, or trial and judgment of my peers, and I will 
not sanction the insinuation which a parole affords, that any 
charge has been made or proved, warranting what has been 
done. Respectfully, 

W. G. Harrison." 

As I saw, from the Proclamation and Order of the new 
Secretary of War, that lie intended to deal with us arbitra- 
rily, instead of justly, I did not think it necessary to await 
propositions which I could not accept, and whicli might not 
even be ottered' to me. I had never made any statement of 
my wrongs, nor had I individually forwarded any remon- 
strance against my arrest to the Government, and I therefore 
took that occasion to put my case upon the records of the 
Department, and sent this letter to Mr. Stanton : 

" Fort Warren, Mass., March 3, 1802. 
" Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretar}^ of War : 

"/SV'r: For six months past, 1 have been detained in close cus- 
tody in one or other of the Forts of the United States. I am, I 
believe, termed, in the novel language of the day, a 'political 
prisoner,' or 'prisoner of state.' Until recently, i have been 
held subject to the order of the Secretary of State, but now I 



FEANK KEY HOWAED. 699 

understand that I am specially in charge of the War Depart- 
ment. You, therefore, are responsible for my further detention. 
Under these circumstances, it is proper that I should place upon 
record, in your office, a statement of the wrongs done me, and a 
demand for an instant and unconditional release. 

"On the night of the 12th of September, 1861, between twelve 
and one o'clock, I was made prisoner in my own house, in Balti- 
more, by a band of armed men, who, although they showed no 
warrant or authority for their proceedings, professed, and I 
have no doubt truly, to be acting under the orders of Mr. Sew- 
ard, the Secretary of State. My house was searched from garret 
to cellar — my private papers ransacked, and most of them, as 
far as I can learn, were carried off. I was kept for an hour or 
more a prisoner in my own parlor — armed men being stationed 
throughout mj'" house, and even at the door of my children's 
chamber, while this search was proceeding. I will not comment 
further upon the indignities then put upon me. I was finally 
carried off to Fort McHenry, leaving my house in possession of 
the myrmidons M^ho had invaded it, and who refused to allow 
me to send for my wife's father or brother, who were in the 
immediate neigh borhood, and to whom alone my famil}^, at such 
a moment, could look for protection. I was detained at Fort 
McHenry during the following day, and then transferred to Fort- 
ress Monroe. At this latter post I was confined a close prisoner, 
with fourteen other gentlemen, for ten days, none of us having 
been suffered to leave for an instant the two casemates which 
were there assigned to us. So rigid was our imprisonment, that 
the very windows and doors, through which we could look out 
on the parade ground, were closed and padlocked. I was then 
carried, with my companions, to Fort Lafaj^ette. At this latter 
post no provision whatever had been made for our reception, 
and no decent accommodations were at any time provided. I 
slept in the dark, cold gun-battery in which I was quartered, 
upon a bag of straw, until I procured bedding from Kew York ; 
and during my whole stay I was compelled to pay for my meals, 
as I could not have eaten the wretched rations offered me by the 
commanding officer. On the 1st of November last, I was brought 
to this place on an over-crowded and filthy steamer, which w^as 
insufficiently supplied even with the miserable pork and bread 



700 AMEEICAX EASTILE. 

provided for our subsistence. But for the fact that I had brought 
my bedding with me, 1 should have been forced, like many of 
my companions, to sleep for two weeks after my arrival here 
upon the bare floor, and without a single blanket to cover me. 
Such is a brief statement of the treatment to which I have been 
subjected. 

'•From the moment of my arrest down to this hour.no charge 
of any sort has been preferred against me, and none can be 
alleged or established, for 1 have not violated any law whatever, 
State or Federal. I was. as you may perhaps be aware, one of 
the Editors of the 'Daily Exchange,' a morning journal pub- 
lished in Baltimore. In that paper I had expressed my politi- 
cal opinions without reserve. I had, a year ago, advocaied the 
adoption of some compromise by Congress which should stay the 
then threatened rupture between the Xorth and South. I had 
subsequently deprecated any attempt to coerce the South, on the 
ground that it would only render the separation of the two sec- 
tions inevitable and final. I asserted that war would leave the 
country in a worse condition than it found it; and. as it would 
entail upon us an enormous debt, I felt it to be my duty to resist, 
and I did resist its initiation. I was, unable to see how the 
Union could be preserved if a large majority of the Southern 
people were bent upon a separation, and I said so. I was unable 
to comprehend how the President could, from the injunction 
which commanded him to see that the laws were faithfully exe- 
cuted, derive authority to supersede and violate the fundamental 
laws of the land, and I said so. 1 was equally unable to see how, 
upon the theory of upholding the Constitution, I was under an 
obligation to support those who wore daily manifesting theii* 
contempt for all its provisions — nor could I conceive how this 
Government had any existence whatever outside of the charter 
■which established it. All these political opinions! had the abso- 
lute right to entertain and promulgate. I choose to refer to them 
here, becaiiso the}- constitute the oftences for which I am under- 
going punishment. Notwithstanding the f:\ct that many thou- 
sands of persons in the jSTorthern States had entertained and 
ex]5ressed these views Avithin a twelvemonth, the Administration 
determined that it was criminal in me to continue to hold and 
utter them, and has, therefore, arbitrarily inflicted upon me the 
indignities and wrongs which I have mentioned. 



FEANK KEY HOWAKD. 701 

"Although no direct offer has been made to me to release me 
upon any terms whatsoever, I, nevertheless, presume that mine 
was one of the cases which either your Proclamation of Feb- 
ruary 14th, or your Order of February 27th, was intended to 
cover. Now, as I cannot accept a conditional discharge, coupled 
with a gracious amnesty for offences which it is assumed I have 
conimitted, and as I must equally refuse to appear at the bar of 
an irresponsible tribunal to justify my right to the ordinary 
privileges of a citizen of Maryland, it is due to myself, at least, 
that I should state the reasons which impel me to the course I 
shall pursue. To the principles which govern my action now I 
shall appeal, when in the future I seek redress and enter upon 
my own vindication. It must be obvious to you, sir, that 1 can- 
not, consistently with my own self-respect, accept any such con- 
ditional release as is referred to in your Proclamation, or avail 
myself of such amnesty. As I was despotically depa-ived of my 
freedom, I can make no compromise to regain it. As I am 
punished merely for venturing to dissent from the theories and 
policy of the Administration, I need and will ask no pardon. 
Nor, even if I should accept the terms mentioned, would I have 
any security that I would not, immediately after my release, be 
again subjected to precisely similar outrages to those which have 
already been inflicted upon me. As the Administration has once 
determined that I, by expressing my political sentiments, was 
giving ' aid and comfort to the enemies in hostility to the United 
States,' 1 could only escape a re-arrest- by consenting to foi'ego 
or conceal my opinions. This I will never, for one instant, do. 
I deem it to be my bounden duty to defend, to the last, every 
privilege and right to which, as an American citizen, I was boi-n ; 
and I shall do so until I am deprived of these by some known 
and fair pi'ocess of law. 

''Nor can j^ou fAil readily to comprehend why I decline to 
submit myself to the jurisdiction of the strange tribunal which 
is organized under your order of Februarj^ 27th. I recognize 
no such judges of my guilt or innocence, of my loyalty or dis- 
loyalty, under the Constitution or laws of this land. The Courts, 
both State and Federal, are in the unobstructed exercise of their 
several functions in Maryland; and they could, long since, have 
examined and disposed of any charge which might have been 
preferred against me. In them, and in them only, will I meet 



702 AMEEICAX BASTILE. 

any acc-usation ; and. "while tbey ai*e closed to my demand for 
justice, I sballj^iecliue to defend myself before any Star-chamber 
commissioners whomsoever. 

" Such. sir. are the motives of my present action ; and as the 
rights which I ^eek to uphold are not dependent upon the alleged 
necessities of the Administration, or upon ^e fate of battles, my 
convictions cannot be affected by the supposed exigencies of the 
one, or the results of the other^ I shall continue, then, to vindi- 
cate them, as I best, may, with the consciousness that, after the 
delusions, the falsehoods, and the passions of the hour shall have 
passed away, my course will be approved by every honest man 
who has been educated in the knowledge of the privileges and 
duties of an American freeman. I have only now to demand, at 
your hands, a prompt, release from the imprisonment to which 
I am so unjustly and arbitrarily subjected. 

" I remain vour obedient servant, 

F. K. HoWARP." 

Tlie ouly notice taken of this communication was the fol- 
lowing note from the Adjutant-General: 

AVar Departmf.xt, 
Washington City. I>. C. March 10. 1S62. 
'■To Colonel Justin Dimick, Fort "Warren, Boston. Massachusetts: 
" Colonel : I will thank you to inform Mr. Frank Key Howard 
that his letter of the 3d instant has been duly received, and that 
his ease has been referred to the Commissioners uamod in the 
within order. 

'•By order of the Secretary of 'SViw. 

L. Thomas, Adjutant General." 

^"ith this letter was forwarded a printed copy of ^fr. 
Stanton's order of Fehruary 27th. The views of all those 
who had refused, to accept any conditional discharge were, in 
the main, those set forth in the above letter to Mr. Stanton. 

Our time at Fort Warren, as at our previous places of 
imprisonment, passed, as may he supposed, monotonously 
enough. Living, as Ave did. in over-crowded apartments, it 
was impossible to read or write with any satisfaction. Re- 
stricted, as we were for many months, to our quarters, or to 



FRANK KEY HOWAED. 703 

a narrow strip of ground in front of them, we could derive 
little pleasure from exercising in the open ah\ To pace up 
and down within these contracted limits, where nothing was 
to be seen but the dull gray walls of our prison, was not a 
cheerful or invigorating mode of exercise, ^s month after 
month dragged wearily on, our hopes of release grew fainter 
and fainter; and, though we seldom perniitted ourselves to 
talk despondingly to each other, we did not think the less 
bitterly about the homes, we had left and the indignities we 
had endured. 

At Fort Warren, the soldiers of the garrison differed, we 
were glad to find,flrrom their comracips at Fort Lafayette. 
While the latter were incapable of delivering a message, or 
of giving the simplest order, save in a manner at once in- 
solent and brutal, the former were uniformly good-natured 
and civil. Colonel Dimick, the Commandant of the Post, 
discharged his disagreeable office in a way to which we could 
take no exception, and none of us, in any interview with him, 
ever found him otherwise than c(iairteous and kind. As far 
as lay in his power, he left nothing undone to promote our 
comfort. 

On the 19th of April, an order was issued giving us per- 
mission to walk, between 1 o'clock p.m. and sunset, upon 
that portion of the ramparts immediately over our quarters. 
The space' thus assigned us was just the length of that to 
which we had been limited upon the parade ground, that is, 
about three hundred feet. This extension of our bounds 
was an infinite relief to us, as from the ramparts we had a 
view of the bay and the surrounding shores. 

The unwillingness of the War and State Departments to 
grant passes to persons desirous of visiting any prisoner, 
may be judged from the following note from Mr. Seward to 
Kev. Mr. Hitselberger, a Catholic priest residing in Boston, 
lie had applied, at the request of Mr. T. Parkin Scott, for a 
permit to enable him, as a priest, to visit the latter, and re- 
ceived this reply : 



704 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

"Department of State, 
Washington, November 20, 1861, 
"To the Ecv. A. L. Hitselberger, 

Boston College, Htirrison Avenue, Boston: 
"Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 
15th instant, with a copy of that which you addressed to (Jolo- 
nel Dimick, on the 15th of November. This Department having 
adopted a rule which precludes all visits to political prisoners, 
even from ministers of the Gospel — of any denomination — has 
hitherto strictly observed it. 

" If, however, the persons themselves shall, in the event of sick- 
ness, or any other reasonable cause, require the services of their 
spiritual advisers, the r-'ile would be relaxen in favor of any one 
of undoubted loyalt3\ 

"I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

WiLLiA.Ai'H. Seward." 

It was not until April that Mr. Hitselberger succeeded in 
Obtaining a pass to visit Fort Warren. 

General Dix and Judge IQerrepont, wlio had been appointed 
Commissioners to examine the cases of "state prisoners" by- 
Mr. (Stanton's order of February 27, arrived at Fort Warren, 
May 7, 1862. They were engaged about five hours in dis- 
posing of these " cases." Their "examination " consisted in 
asking one or two simple questions no way touching any 
crime or offence known to the laws, and in ottering to release, 
on parole, most of the parties called before them. Several 
persons were released on some special grounds which distin- 
guished their " cases " from those of the strictly " political 
prisoners," who unanimously rejected the proposals of the 
Commissioners. The latter did not attempt to say that the 
Government had any specific charges to prefer against those 
on whom-.it wished to impose conditions. That these pris- 
oners had been confined simply because their opinions Avere 
in opposition to those ot the members and partisans of the 
Administration, was tacitly conceded by the Commissioners 
in their so-called examination. 

The following is a memorandum of the interview betAveeu 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 705 

Mr. Wm. H. Gatehell and Mr. Stanton's Coraniissioners. It 
was drawn up by Mr. Gatehell, a few hours after his " exam- 
ination." 

"As I entered the room in which the Commissioners iicld their 
meeting. General Dix advanced M'ith his hand extended, sajnno-, 
'Good morning, Mr. Gatehell.' I dechned the proffered hand, 
remarliing, 'Excuse me, sir, if you please' In a very short time, 
Judge Pierrepont obig^rved, 'I really forget, Mr. Gatehell, 
whether you have been olffered the parole or not, heretofore.' I 
replied, that 'I had been, and that I had declined it, for the rea- 
sons Slated in my answer to the Secretary of War, which I sup- 
posed lie had Seen»' He said he 'had not seen that answer.' I 
told him that 'I would furnish the CommissioJiors with a copy, 
that they might understand the gi'ourids on which 1 placed my 
refusal to accept it.' I was then asked 'whether I continued 
of the same mind?' I answered, 'Certainly.' Then, said he, 
'For the present, we have nothing more to do with your case.' 

"I then turned to General Dix and said: 'At the time we left 
Fort McHenry for Fort Lafayette, you, sir, assured our families 
and ourselves that our treatment there should be as comfortable, 
if not more so, than at Fort McHenry; instead of which, for the 
first thirty days w^e were there, we were treated like brutes — 
tliat, but for the fact of our having taken our bedding with us, 
we should have been obliged to sleep upon the bare floor, and for 
fifteen days we had not a chair to sit upon.' He said, ' I could 
not know what the condition of things was at Lafuyette.' I 
replied, 'You ought to'^ave Tciiown before you made the promise, 
particularly as we were sent there by your orders.' He then 
said, 'Mr. Gatehell, nobody knows better than 3'ou that what I 
did was by orders from my Government.' 'Yes,' 1 replied, ' but, 
as commander of a military tlejiartment, those orders must have 
been suggested b}' you, or adopted with your advice and con- 
sent.' " 

The reasons M'hy the gentlemen then in Fort Warren 
refused to give the required parole, have already been ad- 
verted to. Four of us, Messrs. Scott, Wallis, my father, 
and myself, whom the Government had not, openly — or 
secretly, so far as we knew — charged wiik any iliegal act, 
45 



706 AMEEICA]!?"BASTILE. 

were not summoned before the Commissioners. Our " cases " 
were therefore not " examined," nor were we offered our lib- 
erty on any terms. Colonel Kane, against whom the Govern- 
ment had managed to procure an indictment for treason, and 
who had been carried out of the State immediately afterward, 
remained unnoticed also. He had been removed hundreds 
of miles away from the place where it was alleged he had 
committed a crime, and though for nine months the Govern- 
ment had failed to bring him to Itrial, the Commissioners 
suffered his case, also, to pass unexamined. To Mr. Brown, 
the Mayor of Baltimore, General Dix said that all parties in 
Baltimore bore testimony to his personal integrity, and that 
the Government recognized his fidelity in his intercourse with 
it ; and he then offered to release him, provided he would 
resign his office. Mr. Brown replied that he was in the power 
of the Government, and submitted only because he could not 
help himself, but he peremptorily refused General Dix's pro- 
position to resign his office, remarking that to do so would 
be to forfeit his own self-respect. Comment on this infamous 
and insolent proposal is needless. 

An article which appeared in the Baltimore " American " 
on the 15th of May, furnished conclusive evidence of the 
spirit in which the Commissioners had acted. The principal 
Editor and proprietor of that journal was Mr. Charles C. Ful- 
ton, a man who had been for years the ajDologist of every 
species of fraud and violence which h^d been perpetrated to 
advance the ends and interests of his party or himself, and 
who was at that time the subservient dependant of General 
Dix and General Dix's master. As his account of the visit 
of the former to Fort Warren was mainly correct, so far as 
the facts therein stated were concerned, it may be fairly pre- , 
sumed that he received it from one of the Commissioners or 
their clerk. In that article it was said : 

" We understand that the prisonei'S not examined were Messrs. 
S. Teackle Wallis, T. Parkin Scott, Charles Howard, F. Key 
Howard, and George P. Kane, all of this cit3^ The reason why 
no examination was made in these cases is understood to have 



FRANK KEY HOWAED. 707 

been the conviction, on the part of the Commissioners, that they 
ought not to be permitted to return to Baltimore, on any condi- 
tion, while the class of citizens here of which they are a type 
keep up an unrelenting hostility to the Government — provoking, 
most justly, a hostile feeling toward them on the part of the 

Union men of this city That the feeling of hostility to 

which we have alluded has been fostered and imbittered by the 
vindictiveness of the secession women of Baltimore, there can be 
no doubt; and to them is due — in a great degree, at least — as 
prime movers of disloyalty, the continued imprisonment of their 
friends." 

It is manifest, from these extracts, that the " hostile feel- 
ing" of Mr. Lincoln's partisans toward us was one of the 
reasons why the outrage done us remained unredressed ; 
and a disposition to inflict vicarious punishment on the 
women of Baltimore was another of the manly and just 
motives operating upon General Dix, On May 9th, Colonel 
Dimick enlarged our bounds. We had permission, from that 
time, to walk where we pleased, both inside and outside of 
the fortress, on giving our parole not to attempt to pass 
beyond the line of sentinels who were stationed along the 
shore. Our parole, also, required us not to communicate with 
the shore, or with any one who might land on the island, 
and not to talk to the soldiers of the garrison, or to discuss 
political matters in their hearing. 

On Saturday, May 24th, Colonel Dimick notified us that 
the " political prisoners " were to be sent back to Fort La- 
faj^ette. We regarded this as indicating a determination on 
the part of the Government to subject us to all such indig- 
nities or punishment as it was in its power to inflict. That 
the Government itself considered Fort Lafayette as peculiarly 
a place of punishment, was made evident by an order which 
was received, at the same time, for the transfer of certain 
other persons to the same Fortress. A number of prisoners 
of war, who had been taken in the battle below ISTew Orleans, 
had reached Fort AYarren but two days before. Among 
them were six otHcers of the steam-battery Louisiana, which 
they had blown up rather than suffer it to fall into the hands 



708 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

of the Federal forces. For tliis reason, the Government chose 
to regard them as meriting severe treatment. On their arrival, 
they, like all other C'onfederate officers, were allowed the 
liberty of the Island upon tlieir parole. AVith the order for 
our transfer to Fort Lafayette, came another, directing that 
these officers should not be regarded as, nor receive the ordi- 
nary treatment of, prisoners of war, and that they should be 
sent to Fort Lafayette with us. Their parole was instantly 
revoked, and they were placed nnder all the restrictions to 
which we had so long been subjected. It was thus made 
Tiianifcst that the Government was fully aware of the spe- 
cially })ainful character of the imprisonment which the un- 
hap[ty captives in Fort Lafayette were compelled to endure. 

On Munda}', the 2:)th, Colonel Dimick received a despatch, 
iuforming him that Fort Lafayette was already full to reple- 
tion, and ordering him to retain us, for the tame, at Fort 
AYarreu. That morning, the public had been made aware of 
the fact that General Banks had been driven by General 
Jackson across the Potomac, in great confusion. A special 
despatch had been received at Fort "Warren to the same 
eticct, during the previous night, and the garrison left that 
day, in great haste, for Washington. Probably, the Govern- 
ment had, for some time, more important matters to think 
about than the punishment of " political prisoners," for we 
heard no more of any orders for our removal. On Thursday, 
July 31st, the prisoners of war then in Fort Warren, some 
two hundred in number, left on a steamer for James River, 
where they were to be exchanged. After their departure, 
there were but fourteen " political prisoners " left in Fort 
Warren. 

On the afternoon of the 12th of November, my father 
received a telegraphic despatch, informing him of the " ex- 
treme illness" of my sister. At the same time. Colonel 
Diraick notified him that he was authorized to release him 
upon his parole to return to Fort Warren at the expiration 
of a limited period, and to commit no act of hostility, in the 
mean time, against the Government. This was one of those 



FEANK KEY HOWARD. 709 

few cases in wliich we had all agreed that it would be our 
duty to accept a temporary release. Colonel Dimick desired 
to extend this parole to thirty days ; ])ut my father stated 
his unwillingness to remain in Baltimore, under any condi- 
tions whatsoever, any longer than might be absolutely ncces- 
Bary, and gave a parole, therefore, to return to Fort Warren 
in twenty days. The friends who had procured for him this 
temporary release had applied for one for me also, but of 
this application no notice was taken. Had I been then per- 
mitted, I should have thought it proper for me to go home. 
On the evening of the ■14th, I received a message from my 
father, dated in the morning, informing me that my sister's 
end was rapidly a,p2^roaching. At the same time. Colonel 
Dimick told me he was authorized to release me on parole. 
I subsequently learned, that this order to him was the result 
of a renewed application on m.y behalf. But it came too late, 
and 'there were no longer any reasons moving me to take ad- 
vantage of it, save such as were purely personal to myself. 
A few moments' reflection satisfied me that, under such cir- 
cumstances, I ought not to deviate from my course. I, there- 
fore, declined to accept the temporary and conditional release 
which Mr. Stanton had so tardily offered me. While my 
father was at home. Colonel Dimick proposed to extend the 
time of his stay indefinitely, and to receive his simple pledge 
to return to Fort Warren when so ordered, without exact- 
ing from him any other conditions whatsoever, thus leaving 
him, in all other respects, perfect freedom of action. My 
father declined, however, to take into consideration any fur- 
ther proposition looking to his discharge, temporarily or per- 
manently, upon any terms whatsoever, and notified Colonel 
Dimick that he would be at Fort Warren on the 3d of 
December, the day when his parole would expire. 

On the 24th of jSTovember, an order of the War Depart- 
ment, dated November 22, relating to the discharge of pris- 
oners who had been arrested for interfering with the draft, 
etc., appeared in the Boston papers. Though the order did 
not refer directly to persons in our situation, still there was 



710 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

80 miich ambiguity in its language that it was not clear 
whether it might not be intended to include us. On the 
same afternoon, Colonel Dimick received this despatch : 

"Washington, November 24, 11.50 a.m. 
•■ Commanding Officer, Fort Warren, BoStoin : 

"None of the prisoners confined at your post will be released 
under order of the War Depai'tment of the 22d instant, without 
special instructions from the Department. By order of the 
Secretary of War. 

E. D. TowNSEND, A. A. G." 

I had not myself thought that the order of iS'^ovember 22 
would afiect us, though some of my companions were of a 
different opinion. The above despatch to Colonel Dimick 
effectually banished from the minds of most of them any 
doubts upon the point. 

Late in the afternoon of the 26th of IlTovember, 1862, 
Colonel Dimick entered our quarters and, with a manifesta- 
tion of much pleasure and good feeling, announced to us that 
our captivity was ended. He had just received a telegram 
from Washington ordering our release, and containing no 
suggestion about terms or conditions. He furnished us, the 
next morning, at our request, with the following certificate: 

"Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, November 27, 1862. 

George P. Kane, S. Teackle Wallis, 

George Wm. Brown, Charles Macgill, 

Charles Howard, William Gatchell, 

Frank K. Howard, Thomas W. Hall, 

Henry M. Warfield, T. Parkin Scott, 

William G. Harrison, William H. Winder. 
Egbert Hull, 

"The above-named prisoners are released, agreeably to the fol- 
lowing telegram. 

J. Dimick, Col 1st Art'y, Com. Post." .^ 

'"Washington, November 26, 1862. 
"'Colonel J. Dimick, U. S. Armj-, Fort Warren, Boston: 

"'The Secretary of War directs that you release all the Mary- 



FRANK KEY HOWARD. 711 

land state prisoners, also any other prisoners that may be in 
your custodj^, and report names to this office. 

(Signed) E. D. Townsend, 

A. A. General.' 

'"True copy: Fort Warren, November 27, 1862. 

J. DiMICK, 

Col. 1st Art'y, Com'g Post.' " 

"We left onr prison for our homes on the morning of the 
27th. 

There were, at the time of our release, no other prisoners 
in Fort Warren than those named, except one, who was a 
native of Massachusetts, and who had been arrested in that 
State, a few weeks previously. The gentlemen above named 
had, with a single exception, been my companions in Fort 
Lafayette, and of course in Fort Warren. All but one "had 
been imprisoned over a year, and Mr. Gatehell, Colonel Kane, 
and my father for nearly eighteen months. Each of them 
had determined at the outset to resist, to the uttermost, the 
dictatorship of Abraham Lincoln ; and having done so, each 
had the satisfaction of feeling, as he left Fort Warren, that 
he had faithfully, and not unsuccessfully, discharged a grave 
public duty. We came out of prison as we had gone in, 
holding in the same just scorn and detestation the despotism 
under which the country was prostrate, and with a stronger 
resolution than ever to oppose it by every means to which, 
as American freemen, we had the right to resort. 



COXCLUSIOX. 

COULD there be a more appropriate day to write the 
conclusion to the AMERICAX BASTILE than the 
FOURTH OF JULY? :N^iuety-three years ago, this day, 
the Declaration was read to a patriotic peopk^ from the 
southern steps of Ixdepexdence LLall — nigh to where I now 
write — I'hiiadelphia. Seven years from this day, will be 
celebrated — unless Laiperialism supplant Free Goveuxment 
— the Centennial Anniversary of American Ixdepexdexce. 
In the Declaratiox of Ixdepexdexce are these words: 
*' The history of the present King of Great Dritain is a 
history of repeated injuries and usurpatioxs, all having, 
in direct object, the establishment of an ABSOLUTE 
TYRAXXY OVER THESE STATES." 

Does History repeat itself? 

For a response, we point to the Americax Bastile. 

Did King George III. imprison, " without warrant of law," 
from TEX to twenty thousand of his subjects, during a seven 
years Colonial warfare, as did Mr. Lincoln citizens of the 
United States, in States not in rebellion, during a civil war- 
fare of four years ? 

AVere members of the House of Lords, and of the Hivase 
of Commons, because of their opposition to the measures of 
the Government of George III., expelled, as was the case with 
members of the L'nited States Senate, and of the House of 
Representatives, because of their opposition to the measures 
of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln ? 

Seven years from this day, we hope to celebrate the Cen- 
tennial Anniversary of the Declaration of American Inde- 
pender.ce, when, but fifteen years before, the whole land 
of the Free Xortheru Civil States was dotted over wiih 

712 



CONCLUSION. 713 

Forts, Penitentiaries, Jails, Barracks, and Prison Camps 
— American Bastiles — whicli contained, during the short 
period of four years, as variously estimated, from ten to 
TWENTY THOUSAND men, hesidcs women and children — free 
citizens of free States, incarcerated by the edict of one man, 
because they did not choose, or were supposed, not to obey his 
mandates": Suspects — the drama of the French Revolution 
re-enacted. * 

'We see in every order of arrest issued ; in the deceitful 
eye of every spy ; in the treacherous heart of every informer ; 
in every telegraphic warrant ; in every handcutf that binds 
the wrists of a free man ; in every dim ray of sunlight that 
penetrates the gloomy cell — we hear in every sound of the 
"little bell;" in every free wind that whistles in bitter 
mockery around casemate, battlement, and tower ; in every 
wintry blast that chills the blood of the citizen in the open 
prison-camp; in every word of the sentinel; in every laugh 
of the oppressor ; in the morning and evening prayer oifered 
up at the altar of the mother, wife, sister ; at the grave of the 
child, ^ladame Roland exclaim, Oh ! Liberty, what crimes 

ARE committed IN THY NAME 1 

Does History repeat itself ? 

Six hundred and fifty-four years ago, on an island meadow. 
in the river Thames, still known as Runnymede, the ironclad 
friends of freedom, in England, met King John, and wrested 
from him Magna Charta, the great charter of English liberty. 
It contains these words : " No freeman shall be taken, or 
imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any way de- 
stroyed ; nor will we pass upon him, nor commit him, but by 
the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. 

" to no man will we sell, to none will we delay, to none 
will we deny right or justice." 

This is the great germ of our civil liberty. 

It was defended in England by many bloody wars, and has 
been ratified by many acts of Parliament. Erom it sprang 
the Habeas Corpus, which, at the present day, no King or 
Parliament of England would dare in any way to restrict the 



714 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

privilege of. It was engrafted as a fundamental principle in 
our Constitution, and our forefathers believed it to be a sur* 
guarantee for the rights of future generations. 

About six years before the Federal Constitution was adopted, 
a remarkable prophecy was uttered, under the following cir- 
cumstances : In 1780, Henry Laurens, former President of 
the Continental Congress, was sent as Minister to Holland. 
On his way he was captured, and imprisoned in the Tower 
of London for fourteen months. When Lord Shelburne 
became Premier, Laurens was brought up on habeas corpus, 
and released. After his release, he dined with Lord Shel- 
burne, when the conversation turned on the separation of the 
two countries. Lord Shelburne remarked : 

" I am sorry for your people." 

" Why so ? " asked Laurens. 

" They will lose the habeas corpus ^^'' was the reply. 

" Lose the habeas corpus ! " said Laurens, in astonishment. 

"Yes," said Lord Shelburne. "We purchased it with 
centuries of wrangling, many years of fighting, and had it 
confirmed by at least fifty acts of Parliament. All this 
taught the nation its value ; and it is so ingrained into their 
creed, as the very foundation to their liberty, that no man or 
party will ever dare to trample on it. Your people will pick 
it up and attempt to use it, but, having cost them nothing, 
they will not know how to appreciate it. Ai the first great 
internal feud that you have, the MAJORITY will trample 
UPON IT, AND SO WILL GO YOU.R LIBERTY." 

We present to the public the history of a few of the cases 
— representing different walks of life — of the thousands of 
inoffensive citizens of the free States, not in rebellion, incar- 
cerated in American Bastiles, during the late civil war. 

In this volume there is no assertion or statement made, 
which is not true in every particular, in so far as the author 
is aware. He regrets it, if he has made a single misstateme?it in 
point of fact. 

To the gentlemen who have furnished the author with 



CONCLUSION. 715 

fiicts contained iu tliis volume, lie begs to return his sincere 
thanks. To Mr. Maliony he is especially indebted. 

As has been said before, the great object of this work is 
to aid in restoring to the citizen all his rights of citizenship 

— to assist in perpetuating free institutions in our country 

— and help to prevent, if yossible^ in the future, a repetition 
of the wrongs and crimes committed by a reckless Adminis- 
tration during the last few years. 

The American people have a glorious inheritance, if they 
fully appreciate it. But, like the legacy to the spendthrift, 
when once squandered and gone, it cannot be regained. 

That which it has taken ages to establish, may in a short 
time be swept, by the hand of the usurper, from existence. 

It therefore behooves the citizen to watch with jealous 
care every encroachment upon his chartered rights, and pro- 
tect them against every act which tends to subvert them. 

The death of free government 1 Who can contemplate the 
melancholy spectacle it presents, without sorrow ? When ! 
how! can it be restored to life? "Where, in what age 
and in what clime, have the ruins of constitutional free- 
dom renewed their youth and regained their lost estate ? 
By whose strong grip has the corpse of a Republic ever 
been resurrected? The merciful Master who walked upon 
the waters and bade the winds be still, left no ordained 
apostles with power to wrench apart the jaws of national 
death and release the victims of despotism. Wherever in 
the wide domain of human conduct a people once possessed 
of liberty, with all power in their own hands, have sur- 
rendered these great gifts of God at the command of the 
usurper, they have never afterward proven themselves wor- 
thy to regain their forfeited treasure." 

The safeguards of the State are in the Constitution. In 
it repose the liberties of the people. Hence the people should 
"cling to the Constitution, as the shipwrecked mariner clings 
to the last plank, when night and the tempest close around 
him." \ 



716 AMEPvICAN BASTILE. 

On tlie opposite page, we exhibit to the reader a facsimile 
of the Key of the Bastile, presented by Lafayette to Wash- 
ington, after the demolition of the Bastile, in Paris, in 1789. 

The key still hangs in Mount Vernon. But, reader, what 
does it suggest to you ? Does it carry you to Fort Warren ? 
Fort Lafayette ? Fort McHenry ? Will you make your own 
comments ? Will you draw your own conclusions ? We have 
given you facts: what more do you want? Has the right oi 
free speech been restored to you? THEN SPEAK. Do 
you think the liberties of the citizen, under our Constitution 
and in our country, are as secure as they were, and seemed 
to be, half a century ago ? 

The Key op the Bastile ! 

What memories cluster around it ! What sadness ! What 
sorrows ! Wliat of oppression does it suggest ? What of 
usurpation? What of a COi^STITUTIO:^ broken into 
fragments ? 

Will the PEOPLE now stop to consider ? Can we look to 
them for redress ? 

Have our forefathers labored in vain, and do we still plead 
in vain, for the protection of the rights and liberties of the 
citizen under our Constitution ? 

Our Hope is in the People. 

"A THOUSAND TEARS SCARCE SERVED TO FORM A StATE ; 
An HOUR MAY LAY IT IN THE DUST ; AND WHEN 

Can man its shattered splendor renovate, 

RECALL ITS VIRTUES BACK, AND VANQUISH TiME AND FaTE ? " 




TAC-SIMILE OF THE KEY OF THE BASTILE, PARIS 



APPENDIX. 



"TTT^E here give a copy of so7ne of the Orders, Proclamations, 
' ^ etc., issued by the President, or his Secretaries, in regard 
to the illegal arrests and imprisonment of citizens. It will 
be seen, from these orders, that Mr. Lincoln was responsible 
for all the arcests made, whether by the. civil or military 
authorities. 



A. 

On the 3d of December, 1861, an order, signed by Seth 
C. Hawley, Chief Clerk of the Metropolitan Police Commis- 
sioners of New York, was read to the prisoners of state in 
Fort Lafayette. He acted, as he stated, under orders of Wm. 
H. Seward, Secretary of State. The order ran as follows : 

" I am instructed by the Secretary of State to inform you that 
the Department of State of the United States will not recognize 
any one as an attorney for political prisoners, and will look with 
distrust upon all applications for release through such channels; 
and that such applications will be regarded as additional reasons 
for declining to release the prisoners. 

"And further, that if such prisoners wish to make any com- 
munication to the Government, they are at liberty, and are 
requested, to make it directly to the State Department. 

(Signed) Seth C. IIawley." 



B. 

A lengthy proclamation, promulgated by Mr. Stanton, en- 
titled, '■'■Executive Order in relation to State Prisoners^ No. 1," 

717 



718 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

aud dated February 14, 1SG2, a montli after liis appointment 
as Secretary of War, appeared in the newspapers. This order 
contained a summary of Mr. Stanton's views and opinions 
upon the revohition in the Southern States, its course and 
probable results, and upon the action of the Federal Govern- 
ment, and concluded thus : 

" The insurrection is believed to have cuhninated and to be 
declining. The President, in view of these facts, and anxious to 
favor a return to the normal course of the Administration, as f:ir 
as a regard for the public welfare will allow, directs that all poli- 
tical prisoners or state prisoners now held in military custody, 
be released on their subscribing a parole, engaging them to ren- 
der no aid or comfort to enemies in hostility to the United States. 
The Secretary of ^yar will, however, in his discretion, except 
from the effects of this order any persons detained as spies in 
the service of the insurgents, or others whose release at the 
present moment may be deemed incompatible with the public 
safety. 

" To all persons who shall be so released, and shall keep their 
parole, the President grants an amnesty for any past offences of 
treason or disloyalty which ma}^ have been committed. Extra- 
ordinary arrests will hereafter be made under direction of the 
military authorities alone. 

"Ey order of the President. 

(Signed) Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War." 



C. 

Shortly afterward, the following order was also promulgated 
by the Secretary of War : 

" OFFICIAL. 

" Executive Order No. 2, in relation to the State Prisoners. 
"AVar Department, Washington City, February 27, 18G2. 
" It is ordered : ' 

^^ First. That a special Commission of two persons — one of mill- 



APPENDIX. 719 

tary rank, and the other in civil life — be appointed to examine 
the cases of the state prisoners remaining in military custody of 
the United States, and to determine whether, in view of the pub- 
lic safety, and the existing rebellion, they should bo discharged, 
or remain in military custody, or be remitted to the civil tribunals 
for trial. 

" Second. That Major-Gen eral John A. Dix, commanding in Bal- 
timore, and the Hon. Edwards Pierrepont, of New York, be and 
the}^ are hereby appointed Commissioners for the purposes above 
mentioned; and they are authorized to examine, hear, and deter- 
mine the cases aforesaid, ex parte, and in a summary manner, at 
such times and places as in their discretion they may appoint, 
and make full report to the War Department. 

"By order of the President. 

(Signed) Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of "War." 



"War Department, 
Washington, July 26, 1862. 
"To H. M. HoxiE, United States Marshal of the District of 
Iowa: 

"You are hereb}^ authorized and instructed to arrest and im- 
prison any disloyal person or persons in your district, who shall 
do any act or make any declaration or publication to discourage 
or prevent enlistment of volunteers to suppress the rebellion, or 
to afford aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States. 
You are also authorized and directed to call upon any military 
officer in jour district, or elsewhere convenient thereto, for mili- 
tary force to guard and keep them in safe custody. 

"Any person or persons arrested under this authority, you 
will transport in safe custody to the Military Governor of the 
District of Columbia, and make report to this Department. 

" All officers and persons in the military service of the United 
States to whom this order may be exhibited, and who shall be 
called upon by the within-named Marshal for aid to make arrests 
of disloyal persons, are hereby directed to render such aid as 



720 AMEEICAN BASTILE. 

may be at their command, and employ their force for that pur- 
pose. The necessary transportation and subsistence required 
for the execution of this order will be furnished by all quarter- 
masters and commissaries when requisitions may be mtvde. 
(Signed) 'win M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War." 

" INDORSEMENT. 

" Friend Lowery : Bead the within carefully, and, if any one 
in your region comes within its terms, write to Hoxie. 

(Signed) S. J. Kirkwood. 

" P. S. — There are persons, if I mistake not, in Wapello County, 
that need attending to." 

The above is a specimen of an order issued to Provost 
Marshals, authorizing them to make arrests prior to the is- 
suing of the President's Proclamation of September 24, 1862, 
suspending the privilege of the Avrit of habeas corpus. 

This order, directed to the United States Marshal for Iowa, 
and indorsed by Governor Kirkwood of that State, was the 
aufhoritj/ for the arrest of all citizens subsequently arrested 
throughout all the States. 



E. 

Orders of the War Department, on which American 

Freemen were kidnapped and imprisoned — Suspension 

OF THE Writ of Habeas Corpus. 

The first public order which emanated from the War De- 
partment directing the kidnapping of American citizens, and 
indeed of every one else w^ho might fall under the ban of the 
displeasure of the Administration, was dated the 8th of 
August, 1862. 

A number of cases of arbitrary arrests had occurred before 
this, some of them as early as May of the previous year, but 
there w^as no general order, it seems, to warrant or direct such 
proceedings. 



APPENDIX. 721 

A telegrapliic despatch, or a private order from tlie State 
or War Department, was the usual warrant previous to the 
8th of August, 1862, for depriving freemen of their liberty. 

The orders were as follows : 

" War Department, August 8, 1862. 
" Ordered : 

"First. That nil United States Marshals, and Superintendents, 
and Chiefs of Police of any town, city, or district, be, and they 
are hereby authorized and directed to arrest and imprison any 
person or persons who may be engaged by act, speech, or writing, 
in discouraging volunteer enlistments, or in any way giving aid 
and comfort to the enemy, or for any other disloyal practice 
against the United States. 

" Second. That immediate report be made to Major L. C. Turner, 
Judge Advocate, in order that such persons may be tried before 
a military commission. 

" Third. The expense of such arrest and impi-isoument will be 
certified to the Chief Clerk of the "War Department for settle- 
ment and payment. Edwin M. Stantox, 

Secretary of War." 



F. 

On the same day another order was issued, which, among 

other things, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, not by 
authority of Congress, as required by the Constitution, nor 
even by the President — granting he had the authority to do 
80, which we do not — but by Edwin M. Stanton, who was 
holding a mere statutory oliice, and who at most had the 
right to exercise only such powers as the statute creating the 
office gave him authority to do. But here, nevertheless, is his 
order suspending the writ of habeas coryus : 

" War Department, 
Washington, August 8, 1862. 
"Order to prevent evasion of military duty and for suppres- 
sion of disloyal practices, and for the suspension of the writ 
of habeas corpus. 
** First. By direction of the President of the United States, it 

is hereby ordered that, until further order, no citizen liable to bo 
46 



722 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

drafted into the militia shall he allowed to go to a foreign coun- 
try ; and all Marshals, Dej^iity Marshals, and military officers of 
the United States, are directed, and all police authorities, espe- 
cially at the ports of the United States on the seaboard and on 
the frontier, are requested to see that this order is faithfully car- 
ried into effect. And they are hereby authorized and directed to 
arrest and detain any person or persons about to depart from the 
United States, in violation of this order, and report to L. C. 
Turner, Judge Advocate, at Washington City, for further instruc- 
tion respecting the person or persons so arrested or detained. 

'^ Second. An}^ person liable to draft, who shall absent himself 
from his county or State, before such draft is made, will be 
arrested by any Provost Marshal or other United States or State 
officer, wherever he may be found within the jurisdiction of 
the United States, and conveyed to the nearest military post or 
depot, and placed on military duty for the term of the draft; 
and the expenses of his own arrest and conveyance to such post 
or depot, and also the sum of five dollars as a reward to the 
officer who shall make such arrest, shall be deducted from his pay. 

" Third. The writ of habeas corpus is hereby suspended in re- 
spect to all prisoners so arrested and detained, and in respect to 
all persons arrested for disloyal practices. 

(Signed) Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War." 

It was by virtue of the first of these two orders, and before 
an attempt liad been made to assume the arbitrary power to 
suspend the writ of habeas corpus, that most of those who 
had been kidnapped during the months of August and Sep- 
tember, 1862, were deprived of their liberty. 

It will be noticed — and the reader's attention is specially 
called to the fact — that it was designed to try those who 
w^ere arrested under the order of the 8th of August, by a 
Military Commission. Why this was not done is simply 
because the elections of October admonished the Administra- 
tion that it could not go much farther in subjecting Ameri- 
can freemen to the despotism of arbitrary power, with impu- 
nity. The Military Commission was named, and ready to 
try the victims, and of Qourse to convict them of any crime 
of which the tyrants chose to accuse them ; but after the 



APPENDIX. 723 

result of tbe elections became known, the Commission was 
diverted to another purpose. 



G. 

It was not until the 24th of September, 1862, that the 
President ventured to assume to himself arbitrary power, and 
avow the act publicly. This he did by an order of that date, 
which is as follows : 

Proclamation of September 24, 1862. 

"Whereas: it has become necessary to call into service not 
only volunteers, but also a portion of the militia of the States, 
by draft, in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the 
United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained 
by the ordinary process of law from hindering this measure, and 
from giving aid and comfort, in various ways, to the insurrection: 

"Now, therefore, be it ordered : 

" 1. That, during the existing insurrection, and as a necessary 
measui-e for suppressing the same, all rebels and insurgents, their 
aiders and abettors, within the United States, and all persons dis- 
couraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty 
of any dislo3-al practice, affording aid and comfort to the rebels 
against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to 
martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by court-martial 
or military commission. 

"2. That the writ o{ habeas corpus \s suspended in respect to 
all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the 
rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military 
prison, or other place of confinement, by any militarj' authority, 
or by sentence of Q,x\y court-martial or military commission. 

" In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-fourth 
day of September, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
[l. s.] sand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the inde- 
pendence of the United States the eighty-seventh. 

Abraham Lincoln. 
"By the President. 

William H. Seward, Secretary of State.'* 



724 AMERICAN BASTILE. 

It looks significant that this order is countersigned by 
Wm. II. Seward, and not Edwin M. Stanton. Following 
this order for the suspension of the habeas corpus, the follow- 
ing extraordinary announcement was made from the AYar 
Department : 

H. 

Orders of the Secretary op War, promulgated Septembeh 

26, 1862. 

"First. There shall be a Provost Marshal General of the War 
Department, whose headquarters will be at Washington, and who 
will have the immediate supervision, control, and management 
of the corps. 

"Second. There will be appointed, in each State, one or more 
special Provost Marshals, as necessity may require, who will 
report and receive instructions and orders from the Provost 
Marshal General of the War Department. 

" Third. It will be the duty of the special Provost Marshal 
to arrest all deserters, whether regulars, volunteers, or militia, 
and send them to the nearest military commander or military 
post, where they can be cared for and sent to their respective 
regiments; to arrest, upon. the warrant of the Judge Advocate, 
all disloyal persons subject to arrest under the orders of the War 
Department; to inquire into and report treasonable practices, 
seize stolen or embezzled property of the Government, detect 
spies of the enemj^, and perform such other duties as may be 
enjoined upon them by the War Department, and report all their 
proceedings promptly to the Provost Mai-shal General. 

"Fourth. To enable special Provost Marshals to discharge their 
duties efficiently, they are authorized to call upon any available 
military force within their respective districts, constables, sher- 
iffs, or police officers, so far as may be necessary, under such 
regulations as may be prescribed by the Provost Marshal General 
of the War Department, with the approval of the Secretary of 
War. 

"Fifth. Necessary expenses incurred in this service will be 
paid in duplicate bills, certified by the special Provost Marshal, 
stating time and nature of service, after examination and approval 
by the Provost Marshal General. 



APPENDIX. 725 

"Sixth. The compensation of special Provost Marshals shall be 
dollars per month; and actual travelling expenses and post- 



age wili be refunded, on bills certified under oath and approved 
by the Provost Marshal General. 

^'Seventh. All appointments in this service will be subject to be 
revoked at the pleasure of the Secretary of War. 

"Eighth. All orders heretofore issued by the War Department, 
conferring authority upon other officers to act as Provost Mar- 
shals, except those who receive special commissions from the 
War Department, are hereby revoked. 

" By order of the Secretary of War. 

L. Thomas, Adjutant General." 

This completed the assumption of arbitrary power: nothing 
more was needed to exercise it universally throughout the 
whole country — in that portion of it where the people were 
pursuing their usual peaceful avocations of life, as well as in 
that portion of it occupied by hostile armies. These orders, 
one and all, not only usurped the legislative powers of Con- 
gress, but the judicial authority of the Courts ; nay, powers 
of government are assumed in these orders, which the Con- 
stitution does not invest in any department of the Federal 
Government, but, on the contrary, reserves them especially to 
the people. But of what avail is it that such is the fact ? 
The people acquiesced in these assumptions of power, and 
many of them approve of and commend them. 



Duplicity of the Secretary of War — Public Order for 

THE RELEASE OF PRISONERS OF StATE PRIVATE OrDER TO 

DISREGARD THE ONE PUBLICLY PROMULGATED. 

The clamors of the people against the imprisonment of 
political offenders wrung from the Secretary of War an order 
from his Department, dated the 22d of November, 1862, for 
the discharge of " all jpersoyis now in military custody.,'' who 



726 AMEEICAIf EASTILE. 

had been arrested on the alleged ground of discouraging 
enlistments, etc. 

The order was as follows : 

" War Department, Washington, November 22, 18C2. 

'■'■Ordered: 1. That all pei'sons now in militarj^ custody, who 
have been arrested for discouraging vokinteer enlistment, opposing 
the draft, or for otherwise giving aid and comfort to the enemy, 
in States where the draft has been made, or the quota of volun- 
teers and militia has been furnished, shall be discharged from 
further military restraint. 

" 2. That persons who, by authority of the military commander 
or Governor in rebel States, have been arrested and sent from 
such State for disloyalty or hostility to the Government of the 
United States, and are now in military custody, may also be dis- 
charged upon giving their parole to do no act of hostility against 
the Government of the United States, nor render aid to its ene- 
mies. But all such persons shall remain subject to military 
surveillance and liable to arrest on breach of their parole. And 
if any such persons shall prefer to leave the loyal States on con- 
dition of their not returning again during the war, or until spe- 
cial leave for that purpose be obtained from the President, then 
such person shall, at his option, be released and depart from the 
United States, or be conveyed beyond the military lines of the 
United States forces. 

"3. This order shall not operate to discharge any person who 
has been in arras against the Government, or by force and arms 
has resisted, or attempted to resist the draft, nor relieve any 
person from liability to trial and punishment by civil tribunals, 
or by court-martial or military commission, who may be amena- 
ble to such tribunals for offences committed. 

" By order of the Secretary of War. 

E. D. Townsend; 
Assistant Adjutant General." 

"While this order was promulgated to satisfy the puhlic,^a 
secret j^rivate order was issued at the same time to the commanders 
of the Bastiles, not to release any political offenders under the 
public order. 

The following is a copy of this secret order : 



APPENDIX. 727 

J. 

"Washington, Nov. 24, 11.50 a. m. 

"Commanding Officer, Fort : 

"None of the prisoners confined at your post will be released 
under orders of the War Department of the 22d inst., without 
special instructions from the Department. 
" By order of Secretaiy of War. 

E. D. TowNSEND, A. A. G." 

Thus is the Secretary of "War convicted of duplicity, 
hypocrisy, treachery, and deceit, as scarcely one, if any 
prisoner was released under the order of the 22d of Novem- 
ber. On the contrary, most of the prisoners in Forts Lafay- 
ette and Delaware, if not in other Bastiles, were still kept in 
confinement until late in December, and some of them for a 
considerable time afterward. 

Notwithstanding these well-attested facts, Mr. Stanton, in 
a report made by him on the 29th of November, stated that, 
" by a recent order, all persons arrested for discouraging 
enlistments and disloyal practices in States where the quotas 
of volunteers and militia are filled up, have been released. 
Other persons arrested by military commanders and sent 
from the departments where their presence was deemed dan- 
gerous to the public safety, have been discharged upon parole 
to be of good behavior and do no act of hostility against the 
Government of the United States." 

This Mr. Stanton knew was a barefaced, wilful, and pre- 
meditated falsehood, uttered to mislead and deceive the 
public. 

It is also alleged, and it is no doubt true, judging the cir- 
cumstances by the other acts of duplicity of Mr. Stanton, 
Secretary of War, that on the application of the Hon. 
Reverdy Johnson, an order was issued from the War De- 
partment for the release and discharge of Judge Carmichael, 
of Maryland, and that a private order was sent simultaneously 
to the Commandant of Fort Delaware, not to release Judge 
Carmichael on the presentation of the order to that effect. 



728 AMERICAN BA STILE. 

An Act relating to Habeas Corpus, and regulating Judi- 
cial Proceedings in certain cases. Approved March 
3, 1863. 

Kever was more power over che rigb..-; and liberties of the 
citizen pla- ed in the hands of any one man, than that granted 
by the abG\ e act of Congress, only two sections of which we 
here cpiote. Citizens who have never seen this act of Con- 
gress will be astonished at the despotic and tyrannical rnle 
under which they lived during the Administration of AJr. 
Lincoln. 

They are as follows : 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Ttepremda- 
fives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, 
during the present rebellion, the President of the United States, 
whenever, in his judgment, the public safety may require it, is 
authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of liabeas corpus 
in any ease thi'oughout the United States, or any part thereof. 
And whenever and wherever the said privilege shall be sus- 
pended, as aforesaid, no military or other olHcer shall be com- 
pelled, in answer to any writ of habeas corpus, to return the 
body of any person or persons detained by him by authority of 
the President ; but upon the certificate, under oath, of the oificer 
liavino- charge of any one so detained, that such person is de- 
tained by him as a prisoner under authority of the President, 
furtlier proceedings under the writ of habeas corpus shall be sus- 
pended by the judge or court having issued the said writ, so 
long as said suspension by the President shall remain in force, 
and said I'ebellion continue. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That any order of the Presi- 
dent, or under his authority, made at any time during the exist- 
ence of the present rebellion, shall be a defence in all courts to 
any action or prosecution, civil or criminal, pending, or to be 
commenced, for any search, seizure, arrest, or imprisonment, 
made, done, or committed, or acts omitted to be done, under 
and by virtue of such order, or under color of any law of Con- 
gress, and such defence may be made by special plea, or undei 
the general issue. 



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